The Biggest Christmas Bash Ever
by Tyem Marodyor
Summary: Lily Evans and her two best mates are planning the best Christmas party Hogwarts has ever seen! Invitations, decorations and Lily's sanity have to be sorted out first though. And then there's the Potter problem... Lily's POV
1. Plans Begin

Saturday 8th December 1977

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_Hogwarts is about to become the most exciting place to be! In the spirit of the season (and 'cause it's our last year), Dorcas, Emmeline and I are throwing a Christmas party. It's going to be the biggest bash these witches and wizards have ever seen! We're sorting out the guest list today. The party's planned for next week. I'll write with more news soon! Bye bye for now!_

_All my love,_

_Lily._

**.x.x.x.**

I put my quill down and read over what I had just written. I looked over at my two friends, Emmeline Vance and Dorcas Meadowes, who were sitting comfortably in the armchairs of Gryffindor Tower.

"I'll be back in a minute!" I called over to them. Dorcas nodded at me and continued to draw on unsuspecting Emmeline's arm.

I clambered out of the portrait hole and headed for the Owlery. I watched the snow fall gently outside of the windows. _What a lovely_ –

"Hiya Lily!"

I winced. "What do you want, Chuck?" I asked without turning around.

Chuck Bare, a boy with thick glasses, greasy hair and a greasy face caught up with me. "Where are you heading on this fine day?"

I thought about lying for a moment. I changed my mind when I realized that probably wouldn't work. "Oh, I'm just going to the Owlery."

Chuck grinned. "May I accompany you?"

"No," I answered shortly. "Gotta go." I walked away from him.

"Okay then! See you around Lily!"

I reached the Owlery and pushed the door opened with some relief. Stepping carefully over the many thousands of owl droppings (Do they ever clean this place?), I reached my owl, Butterscotch.

"Hey Butters," I said quietly, stroking him gently. "Take this letter to Mum and Dad, okay?" I tied my letter to his leg. Butterscotch hooted and took off out the large window. I watched him go. I turned away from the beautiful view and headed back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Niti est nitere," I told the Fat Lady. She swung open obligingly and I went in and sat next to Emmeline. "Would it be murder if I was holding the stick that caused Chuck Bare's fatal fall?" I asked her.

"He's not invited to the party then, I take it," said Emmeline, scowling at Dorcas. "Why did you write my initials with a love heart and the initials R. L.? What do they even – Hey!"

"Guys!" I said, as Emmeline looked ready to bring in the whole army forces to get Dorcas in revenge. They looked at me. "Who's on the invite list so far?"

Dorcas coughed importantly and shuffled the parchment sheets in front of her. "Well…" she said. "There's me, Emmeline and you."

"Is that it?"

"Um…yeah," said Dorcas sheepishly.

Emmeline and I stared at her.

"What? It's not like I'm the social butterfly!" said Dorcas defensively. "And anyway, I don't even know who you guys want to invite."

"We'll have to invite all the big names," said Emmeline, sitting up and holding up her fingers to count them off. "James Potter…"

"No," I said.

"Sirius Black…"

"No."

"Remus Lupin…"

"Does he even like parties?"

"And since they're all coming…Peter Pettigrew."

"No way," I said. "I'll put up with the rest if I have to, but he is not coming."

"Fine," said Dorcas, scratching down names. "Us and the three popular Marauders. Who else?"

"Did we already agree that this should be seventh years only?" asked Emmeline.

"Yes," chorused Dorcas and I in a bored tone.

"Okay then…Miki Hanson, our dorm mate should probably come," said Emmeline thoughtfully.

"Who are her friends?" asked Dorcas, scribbling furiously.

"Cheryl Danst," I said.

"No," said Emmeline. "She is such a cry-baby."

"Penny Farnew," I said.

"She's nice," said Dorcas. "I'll write her down."

"Taylor Pierce."

"No," said Emmeline and Dorcas together.

"And that other girl…what's her name? Oh yeah, Nicola Holton," I said, remembering.

"She is so invited," said Dorcas, immediately writing down her name. "She is nice…remember that picnic and now we all call her Picnic?"

"Yeah…" we all said, reminiscing.

"Back on topic," I said, snapping out of it. "Who else?"

"There are like a hundred seventh years," said Emmeline, unhelpfully. "So far we have…how many Dorcas?"

"Um, what comes after five?" asked Dorcas, confused.

"Nine," I said, adding them up myself.

"Nine," repeated Emmeline. "That leaves us with ninety-one to still sort out."

"Um, hello?" said Dorcas. "Take away like twenty-five 'cause we are so not inviting Slytherins."

"Right," I said, doing the maths in my head. "So that leaves us with sixty-six to choose from."

"Sixty-six?" repeated Dorcas. "God…"

"Don't worry," said Emmeline. "It won't be too hard to pick the party people."

**.x.x.x.**

"My feet hurt," complained Dorcas as we walked along the corridor that leads to the courtyard. "And we've only written down two more names; Holly Ponoll and Jeffrey de Pashka."

"Well, all the popular people hang around out here," said Emmeline as we sat down on an empty seat in the corner of the courtyard. "We'll get way more names now."

"Ooh!" I said pointing discreetly at a group of boys sitting off to the side. "Gryffindors; Nathan Parker, Ricky George, and Daywu Han."

"Right," said Dorcas, quickly scribbling down the names on the sheet headed 'Gryffindors'. "Nathan, Ricky and Daywu, right?"

"I went out with Ricky," said Emmeline wistfully. "He thought it would be funny to point out that women wear necklaces just to show off their cleavage. I told him that mine was a gift from my mother. Then he said that she probably got my dad by wearing the necklace. I think I threw my tea in his face then."

Dorcas snorted. "Oh!" she cried suddenly. "Group of the popular Hufflepuffs!"

I squinted at them. "David Kornea, Ashley Piccot, Coneix Tariff and I think that's Victoria Soberg."

"Coneix," muttered Dorcas, writing quickly. "And Victoria. Right. Anyone else?"

"Nope," answered Emmeline. "Let's go back inside, it's freezing."

"We'll get some more after lunch then we'll get the invitations done tomorrow," I said briskly.

Dorcas and Emmeline nodded in agreement.

"This is gonna be the best bash ever!"

**.x.x.x.**

**_Disclaimer: The characters that you may recognize in this story AREN'T MINE. I swear._**

**Liked it? Loathed it? Tell me in your reviews. And if you'd like your name featured as a party guest, just message me! Ideas are welcome too!**


	2. My Ankle! My Beautiful, Beautiful Ankle!

"You know, if we sit here for much longer, I'm not going to have a foot anymore," I said, trying to wiggle my toes in my shoe. We were sitting outside, cross-legged on a chair that we had wiped clean of snow (thanks Emmeline!), digesting our lunches and finding more people to make this party the best one ever. Oh, and my left foot was going to sleep.

"Ooh!" cried Emmeline excitedly, completely ignoring the fact that I had just said something. "That's Georgie Sparrow! If we don't invite her, that's like social suicide!"

"You've said that about everybody," grumbled Dorcas, writing the name down.

Emmeline then realized that I had said something. "What? Why won't you have a foot? Where's it going?"

"Are we going to the Canary Islands?" asked Dorcas, grinning widely and looking as happy as a kid in Honeydukes.

Emmeline and I stared at her blankly.

"Dorcas," I said slowly, "how on earth did you come up with that?"

"Well, I was writing Sparrow, then Emmeline said, 'Where's it going?' so I thought of islands, and I like islands, but then I thought of the Canary Islands, so I thought that we were going there. But, judging by the looks on your faces, I'd say that we're not going…" Dorcas trailed off sadly.

Emmeline blinked. "Um…I think that we've got everyone here," she said abruptly, standing up.

I stood up as well, and went to take a step towards the castle. All of a sudden, my ankle twisted sideways.

"Ouch!" I yelped, which caused numerous 'what a freak' looks from the very popular people sitting all around.

Dorcas and Emmeline looked at me with some concern.

I tried to take another step, but that was even more painful, and I screwed my face up to stop myself getting any more 'weirdo' looks.

"Wanna go to the Hospital Wing?" asked Emmeline gently.

"Yeah," I grimaced.

With much hobbling, hopping and moaning (most of the moaning from Dorcas. Honestly, she could take over Myrtle's day job) we made it to the Hospital Wing.

"I told you, no more –" began Madam Pomfrey, as she bustled out of her office. "Oh, hello dears. What's the matter? Shouldn't you be outside on this lovely Saturday?"

"My ankle really hurts," I said, surprised to find that I sounded like Dorcas.

"Come here, sit on this bed; I'll take a look at it."

I did as I was asked and found it was really hard to sit still whilst someone was waving a wand back and forth over your left ankle. Maybe I should be Dorcas.

"Hmm…I think you've torn your ligaments dear," said Madam Pomfrey, straightening up.

"My what?" I asked her.

"Your ligaments," she repeated. "Now, they're funny things, I've done the best I can, but do try to keep off it for a few weeks. Oh, and wear this bandage around it, so as not to tear anymore."

She Summoned a bandage and dropped into my hands.

"But – But – I – A few weeks?" I all but shrieked. "But I've got a party to organize!"

Madam Pomfrey smiled at me. "Well, you'll just have to hop to it." Chuckling at her lame joke, she went back into her office.

"Hmph," I muttered, reaching down and wrapping my ankle tightly with the bandage.

"Do you wanna have a hopping race?" asked Dorcas excitedly. Trust her to find something good about my pain. Honestly, the girl's never low on energy.

"It'll be good practice," agreed Emmeline. "To Gryffindor Tower then."

"Fine," I said, hopping to the door; Emmeline and Dorcas walking beside me.

"Ready?" said Dorcas, grinning. "Set. GO!"

We took off; with me wondering how the hell I was gonna survive a few weeks of this when Emmeline and Dorcas were clearly ahead of me. I was also wondering how I was going to explain this to anyone who saw us.

Emmeline stopped for a moment, hopping in one place. "Come on Lily!" she called to me. "You can hop! I know you can! Channel your inner frog!"

Damn Emmeline and her 'channelling'.

It seemed to work though. I got a sudden burst of energy; like the ones Dorcas has all the time; and I streaked past Emmeline, steadily gaining on Dorcas.

"Marble staircase, coming up!" Dorcas called from ahead of me.

"Crap," I heard Emmeline mutter. "This is where I always stuff up."

I had a very odd thought that they had been doing this while I was doing my many study sessions. They did say that they were going to study in the library in a funny way…

No time to dwell on that now. This is where I have to say that hopping up ten flights of twenty stairs (and steep ones at that) without being able to change feet and with the potential to kill possibly twelve people if I fell, is not something that I recommend. I, however, was in no place to argue with the logic of this race. But by now, I was getting pretty good at hopping.

"Hey!" cried Dorcas, as I hopped past her, and went around the corner.

I reached the portrait just as Emmeline and Dorcas came around to see me.

"Not fair!" said Dorcas. "I've been hopping for years, and you win?" She scowled. Then she tossed her long, corn-coloured hair. (I'm not jealous. Really. Who wants hair the colour of corn?)

"Children," was all she said. "Niti est nitere," she said to the Fat Lady, as if they were most important words to say.

The portrait swung open obligingly and Dorcas scrambled through, without so much as a backwards glance.

Emmeline and I looked at each other.

"Well?" said the Fat Lady irritably. She was still hanging open. "Are you going in, or what?"

Emmeline went through quickly, and I guess that I was expected to go after her.

Believe me; do not spend any longer than you have to in that space between the portrait hole and the bliss of the common room. Being able to use only one foot to get myself through, I did not have the greatest of times. You start to get paranoid, claustrophobic, arachnophobic (even though I don't actually think that there are any in there. Of course not…), and most of all, you end up coming out into the common room with the reddest face because of how embarrassing it is that you were thinking those things, even though you've been through there over a thousand times.

I'm getting off the topic, aren't I? Trying to turn this into some sort of… Never mind. Back to the story.

Emmeline was patiently waiting for me in the common room. "Do you wanna talk to Dorcas, or should we just leave her?" she asked me.

"Leave her for a while. We can work on the list ourselves."

"But she has the list," said Emmeline.

Sometimes she can be so slow.

"No, she doesn't," I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the many sheets of parchment.

"You are a sneaky one," said Emmeline in awe. "Now let's go sit down; you should keep off that ankle."

We found a spare armchair that Emmeline let me sit in, while she sat on the ground.

"I thought of someone," she said, smiling. "Rebecca Windle, in Ravenclaw."

"How could we have forgotten?" I said, pulling out an old quill and writing her down.

Emmeline turned away from me and looked at the fire that was burning in the grate. She was silent for a moment. "I'm gonna miss this place," she said wistfully. "I've never even had a boyfriend."

I grinned. "Oh yeah? What about –"

"No," said Emmeline shortly. "He does not count."

"But you went to Madam Puddifoot's with him," I argued. "Plus, he bought you all those Chocolate Frogs."

"I wouldn't count him if he'd bought me the earth. He was not a boyfriend." Then Emmeline smiled at me. "What about you? How many have you had since you've been here?"

I turned away. "Not many."

"Lily," said Emmeline, smiling at me with a slightly astonished look. "You've been out with: Joe Bert…"

"Ugly."

"…Freddy Priven…"

"Ugh. Just ugh."

"…William Dentry…"

"He bought me a frog and thought that it was a romantic present."

"…Walcha Weyden…"

"Walcha…Why on earth did I go out with a guy named Walcha?"

"…and then there was sixth year –"

"Okay, Emmeline, stop," I said, holding my hands up in defeat. "Okay, so I've had, what, like a dozen boyfriends. But none of them have been right, you know?" I looked at her, hoping she understood.

"I know. But I know who is right –"

I stopped her before she began. "I've told you before, I'm not going to go out with –" I threw a glance over to the other side of the common room where four boys were sitting. "I'm not."

I stood up gingerly, but I was trying to make an abrupt exit. "Night, Emmeline." I walked, actually, hopped to the staircase and went to bed.

I sensed Emmeline giving me her 'why doesn't she understand?' shake of the head as I hopped off.

**.x.x.x.**

**_Disclaimer: I own Harry Potter! Haha! ..._**

**_I wish._**

**Hi! I got a good response of reviews and I'd like to thank all of you who did. From now on, I'm gonna be sending out review replies just to thank you guys. Keep on reading! Lily-James things start happening soon. Sorry if you've been waiting for them! Next chapter, I promise!**

**By the way, don't think that Lily hates her friends. 'Cause she doesn't. She just...gets annoyed with them from time to time. Like all good friends do. And, if you were friends with Dorcas Meadowes, wouldn't that be frustration enough?**

**:D**

**Tyem.**


	3. The Homicidal Invitations

"Lily. Lily."

I didn't want to open my eyes.

"Lily, come on. You have to get up."

"No, I don't," I mumbled. "You can't make me."

"You are impossible, Lily!"

"No I'm not. I'm just stubborn."

"Same thing. Now get up."

"No."

"Fine."

All of a sudden, my sheets, five blankets and Mr Honey Bunny were ripped away from me. I found myself being pulled out my bed by my ankles.

"Emmeline!" I yelled. "Let me go!"

"Get up!" said Emmeline, her hands on her hips. I looked up at her blearily.

"Hello? It's a Sunday. It's called sleeping in."

"_Hello_? Sleeping in? Until ten, maybe, but it's eleven and we've got a party to plan!"

I sighed and forced myself off of the floor with much difficulty. "Geez. You know how much I hate you, right?"

"Sure," said Emmeline disbelievingly. "Now help me get Dorcas up."

I sighed again. Standing on one foot, (damn this ankle!) I picked up my wand from my bedside table and yawned. "Sorry Dorcas," I said to her sleeping face. "_Aguamenti_."

"EEK!" screeched Dorcas, jumping up about a foot or so into the air. She raced into the bathroom.

"Um…you do remember that she still hasn't forgiven from last night, right?" said Emmeline.

"Um…Sure." Inwardly, I was cringing. Oops.

Emmeline rolled her eyes at me. She walked over to the bathroom door and knocked gently. "Dorcas?" she said quietly.

The door flew open, squashing an extremely shocked Emmeline behind it. Dorcas pranced out, wearing her towel. That was quick. "Oh yeah, about last night," she said, flicking through the clothes in her wardrobe. "Sorry. I think I was the more immature one there." She pulled out a baby pink sweater. "Hmm. Dunno why I let my mum buy me this. Ugh. It so does not go with my hair." Dorcas grabbed her wand and charmed the sweater blue. "Better." Then she turned to face me. "I must have seemed like a jerk, right? I'm so sorry Lily. You know I love you." She dropped her sweater on the ground and came over to hug me.

Good thing I was still in my jimjams 'cause Dorcas was still quite wet. Plus, hugging is slightly awkward when one person has to stand on one leg. "Me too," I told her. "About the party… We're gonna get the last few people this morning, then we'll start making the invitations."

"Goody," said Dorcas, pulling out her jeans. She scowled at them. "So last season."

I left her to deal with her 'out-of-date' wardrobe and hopped over to mine to find some clothes of my own. I love Sundays. We can wear whatever we want. Bliss.

"Little help?" said Emmeline's muffled voice. I'd forgotten she was still behind that door.

I pulled the door off her and peeled her off it. "Dibs on the bathroom," I cried, hopping as fast as I possibly could into the small room.

**.x.x.x.**

One hour later, and after about six wardrobe changes (all Dorcas'), we were finally ready for a rather late breakfast. Actually, I think it was lunch by the time we got down there. They don't normally serve salad and sandwiches for breakfast.

"Bood bekfess," said Dorcas, her mouth full.

"Dorcas, I believe that they call this time of the day 'lunch'," corrected Emmeline.

Dorcas shrugged, "Dab dousnt mabber."

Emmeline sighed quietly enough that Dorcas couldn't hear, and then she nudged me. "Look over there. Jacob Proberts. Hogwarts heartthrob. He must be invited."

"I thought that James was the Hogwarts heartthrob," I said, not looking up from my rather dull salad. I could have sworn that I had just seen a caterpillar.

Emmeline didn't say anything. I looked up at her. She was looking rather shocked.

"What? I didn't say that he wasn't invited," I said quickly.

"No," said Emmeline slowly. "But you – you – you said…"

"Said what?" I said. "Get to the point Emmeline," I said, somewhat impatiently.

"You said James," she said, very, very seriously. It was as if she had just told me the extremely secret plans of some underground army.

"Did I?" I said absentmindedly. "Oh. Is that all."

"That's all?" said Emmeline, almost shrieking. "Dorcas, Dorcas!"

Dorcas looked up. "What?"

"Lily said James!"

Dorcas gave me the same look that Emmeline was wearing. "You said James," she said in the same dead serious voice, but this time slightly disbelievingly.

"Oh for God's sake," I said. I was really impatient now. "I said James. Wow. Big woop. What the hell is your problem?"

"You said James," they said in unison.

Their looks were too serious for me. I grinned then couldn't help but to burst out in laughter. "You guys," I managed to splutter. "God…"

Still laughing, I wrote down Jacob Proberts' name on the list for Gryffindor and finished my lunch. I took a few deep breaths after that. "Okay. God, you guys make me crack up sometimes. Let's go to the library and work on these invitations."

I could sense Emmeline and Dorcas exchanging looks and whispering behind me as we walked. Well, they walked, I hopped. Let them, I thought. I didn't see the big deal.

Hang on.

I have –

Huh?

What the?

James?

I said _James_?

Uh-oh.

I couldn't have.

"Dorcas, Emmeline," I said quickly, turning around and hopping on the spot. "I said James, didn't I? I didn't call him…"

"No," they said, still wearing that serious look and shaking their heads in unison.

Oh.

My.

Nondenominational.

God.

Where was the real me?

Thank goodness we've reached the library. Like he would come here.

Wait a second –

Eep.

"Lily, we didn't bring anything," said Emmeline. Then she spotted the person I was staring at (though I'd rather not admit that fact.). "But Dorcas and I will go get some things from the dormitory while you stay right here." She pushed me into the chair at the study table that was right next to him and his best mate.

Hang on. How did I know that he was his best mate?

Wait, that's normal. Come on, you can't be stuck in every detention together and not be friends.

But I am now officially paranoid.

Oh.

My.

No, I won't think it. He's not staring at me. He's not.

Eep.

He's seen me. He's walking. Why is my peripheral vision so damn freaking good? Damn you peripheral vision, damn you to –

"Hey Lily," he said quite smoothly, slipping into the seat next to me.

Why? I hate you Emmeline. And you Dorcas, for going with her. Die. Go to die. If I was a werewolf, I would have made you both like me, or else killed you, by now.

"Hi," I said, wincing at the sound of my voice. I sounded nervous for goodness sake. We were Heads together. Why was I nervous now?

Oh yeah. 'Cause I'd realized that…

No. I hadn't realized that.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, quite conversationally.

"Oh, Emmeline, Dorcas and I are making invitations," I said. God. Why does that sound so childish?

Quit asking rhetorical questions, Lily!

Sorry Lily.

Ugh. Now I was apologizing to myself.

"Really?" he asked. He sounded interested. "What for?"

"A party." It was like I was trying to keep it a secret.

He leaned closer. His cologne smells nice.

I did not just think that.

"What kind of party, Evans?"

Back to Evans then. "A Christmas one," I said quite brightly.

His eyebrows went up. "Nice." He leaned closer than I would have thought possible.

Is it Calvin Klein I wonder?

Shut up, smelling-part of my brain.

"And, am I invited?" he asked.

"Of course!"

I did not just sound like one of his crazy fan girls.

He leaned back. "That's good. See you around."

I blinked as he walked off. He…spoke to me.

Okay. You're probably thinking, 'You dumbass Lily. Of course he freaking spoke to you. He's been speaking to you for seven freaking years!'

But I mean a civilized conversation. Like, one where I didn't explode at his ignorance.

Anyway, back to what was happening.

"Lily, what is up with you?" asked Dorcas as she and Emmeline came back, with their arms full of paper, scissors, quills, ink, glue and I think Dorcas was holding a nail file.

I looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"It's like your telling someone your whole life story inside your head."

"How did you – No, I'm not! Look, can't I stare off into space and not be laughed at?"

…

"Why are you laughing at me?" I asked indignantly, frowning at my two friends.

"Because," gasped Emmeline, holding her sides, "you did it again."

I frowned and snatched the quills and ink from Dorcas. I pulled out the sheets of parchment that had every single one of the fifty-two guests on them. "Let's get started then."

**.x.x.x.**

"My fingers…" complained Dorcas. "Why didn't we duplicate them by magic?"

"Because they would have disappeared after a while, and we also wouldn't have been able to say, 'They're handmade!'" I told her.

"And they're positive points because…?"

"Just glue Dorcas," said Emmeline, shoving half-finished invitations at her.

Emmeline was in charge of cutting all the paper into shape, whilst Dorcas was in charge of gluing. She had used the glue stick for about a quarter of the invitations, but she was now using a Permanent Sticking Charm for everything.

And me? I was in charge of writing everyone's name on the invites, along with details of the party. And then I would add a bit of magical sparkle before sealing them strongly.

Surprisingly, we hadn't been thrown out of the library yet. Potter and Black (back to using last names! Sigh.) were long gone; after trying to take me with them.

_(Flashback)_

"_Hey Evans, what do you think will happen if we light some books on fire?"_

"_You'll be banned from the library for the rest of your life, Black."_

"_Wanna bet?"_

"_Not particularly."_

"_Prongs! Light that book on fire!"_

"_Right-o, Padfoot! _Incendio_!"_

"_You're in for it now."_

"_She told us to, Madam Pince!"_

"_No, I didn't, I swear!"_

"_I know Miss Evans. BOYS! OUT!"_

_(End Flashback)_

"Last one," sighed Emmeline, passing the papers to Dorcas.

"Thank Merlin, Buddha, Jesus, Allah, I don't care. Thank them all," said Dorcas, tapping her wand on the papers.

I wrote the last name, crossed it off the list, sparkled the paper and sealed it. "Done," I said, and we all put our heads down on the desk. We all sighed loudly.

"Better send them," I said, sitting up. I tapped the stack with my wand and the invitations flew off to their respective recipients.

All except three.

"What the…" I muttered, tapping them again.

"Try something stronger," suggested Emmeline. She tapped the invitations with her wand sharply.

It didn't appear to do anything at first. But then the invitations began to shiver slightly.

"It's about time – HEY!" screeched Dorcas.

The invitations had begun to attack us; they were giving us the equivalent of a slap.

"Make them stop!" yelled Dorcas.

They had begun to thump us around the head. I grabbed the one that was intent on murdering me and ripped it open.

"Oh," I said slowly in realization.

"What?" said Emmeline urgently, protecting her face from her own homicidal invite.

"They're for us," I said. "We were on the list, so I wrote invitations for us."

"You are getting slower by the day; you know that right?" said Dorcas, pushing her bloodthirsty invite towards me.

**.x.x.x.**

**Phew! This was one looong chapter! Five pages without all the extras spaces, and eight with them! Hope it wasn't too boring. I hope it was at least a little funny! I was always get so nervous about publishing things. I don't know why…**

**Please review to make me feel better:) I always love it when people tell me their favourite parts:D **

**Keep on reading!!!**


	4. Ink Drops and Realization

"Lily."

I blinked slowly.

"Lily."

I turned slowly to face Emmeline beside me. Aah, History of Magic. The only subject where you can talk and no-one gives a damn. "Yes?"

"You've been sitting still for so long, your quill's point is about to drop a huge ink blot on your page."

"Oh!" I said in surprise, moving slightly.

Dorcas grabbed my arm. "No," she said in awe. "Watch it."

For the next twenty minutes, we and most of the class, watched as ink gradually built up in the point of my quill.

The Marauders (though I hate to give them pleasure in knowing that their name is used, it's just easier to collectively call them that.) were part of our little audience.

"Come on…" muttered James. (Don't be so shocked.) "I've got ten Galleons riding on you falling in the next five seconds."

"And those seconds are gone, Prongs my boy," said Sirius, snatching the coins from James' hand.

James moaned in defeat.

Dorcas was meanwhile raking in the bets herself. "Bets here! Bets here! 2:1 chances of it coming out in the next thirty seconds."

I looked over at Emmeline. She wouldn't stop sniffing. When I managed to catch her eye, she rolled her eyes at me.

A gasp went up from the small crowd of people. It seems my ink blot was almost ready.

"Five Galleons!"

"Twelve, twelve Galleons!"

"Six Knuts!"

"I'm looking for serious bets, Pettigrew."

"How come you're only taking bets from Sirius?"

"That joke is so old Wormtail," said Sirius, counting his Galleons in the palm of his hand.

"Oh Merlin, it's gonna drop!" said someone excitedly.

Everyone immediately stuck their faces closer to my quill.

"This is the most exciting moment of my life," said James eagerly.

All of a sudden, the biggest drop of ink I had ever seen fell from the point of my quill. It landed with a loud plop onto my parchment and splashed everyone who was in close proximity.

"What a whopper!" cried a boy at the back. Amazingly, he had spots of ink on his face.

I hope I didn't.

Everyone immediately gathered around Dorcas.

"Pay up then," said one.

Dorcas smiled at them and gave them all the winnings they deserved. The excitement had died down, apart from a few who were now finding entertainment in watching others scrub the ink off their faces.

Emmeline had moved onto the pursing lips stage.

"Dorcas," I began carefully as my best mate sat down. "Where'd you get all that gold?"

Dorcas grinned. "My parents may be Muggles, but my great-uncle's a leprechaun."

I gaped at her, and so did Emmeline, though I'm sure it was against her better judgement.

"What?" we said in unison.

Dorcas wouldn't stop grinning. "He and my great-aunt had basically been disowned. She met him over in Ireland a few years ago. He adores me, oddly enough. And so he gave me loads of leprechaun gold."

"You can't be serious," said Emmeline disbelievingly.

"No, he's over there."

"Stop that!"

"Sorry Black," Dorcas called over her shoulder. She turned back to Emmeline. "Isn't it just great?"

Emmeline blinked slowly. "Sure it is, Dorcas. Sure." She blinked in that slow way again before turning back to Binns.

Dorcas and I exchanged glances.

**.x.x.x.**

"You're the ones holding the party?" asked a Ravenclaw girl at lunch. She was chewing gum incessantly. I think Dorcas was hypnotized by her chin.

"Uh, yeah, we are," I answered. I was becoming slightly afraid for Dorcas. She was hypnotized.

"Good, then I've come to the right place." She smiled, still chewing. "I'm Winnie Guinness. You invited me."

"Oh!" I said. "You're – Oh! Okay then." I quickly pulled out a piece of parchment from inside my robe. It was a duplicate of the guest lists we had made the other day. "So you're coming?"

She gave me a look as though I had just been Confunded. "No. Of course I am! This is gonna be the biggest Christmas bash this place has ever seen!" She gave an awfully loud, awfully annoying laugh.

I smiled as good-naturedly as I could manage. "We hope it will be." I put a tick next to her name.

Then she leaned close to me. "What teachers are gonna be there?" she asked quietly in my ear.

I only just stopped myself from screwing up my nose at the smell of her gum. Spearmint is so not her flavour. "Only the party animals," I replied, trying not to breathe through my nose without noticeably holding it.

She gave anther laugh. "Good. I'd rather not have McGonagall spoiling the night." She gave a small wave and walked back over to her table.

"Oh," I said with disappointment.

Emmeline gave me a shocked look. "You're joking, right?"

"No," I said. "Why would I be?"

Dorcas finally came out of her chin-watching trance. "Lily, we are not inviting McGonagall. But we haven't even started talking about which teachers are gonna come!" Dorcas began to panic. I could see it in her eyes. "Or where we're gonna be holding the thing! And what about the decorations? Guys, I can't breathe! I think I'm having a panic attack… Guys! Little help! Guys!"

I quickly put my arm around Dorcas and tried to steady her. "Calm down girl. It's alright. We've got tonight and then four more days. We'll work it all out."

She was breathing far too quickly to be normal. "Come on," said Emmeline, helping Dorcas get to her feet. "We'd better take her to the Hospital Wing."

I nodded and stood up. You're probably wondering about my ankle, right? Well, it was feeling better, but I didn't wanna put too much weight on it so I just walked with an extremely weird limp. I helped Emmeline steady Dorcas on her feet.

Unexpectedly, Dorcas collapsed to the ground. In the middle of the Great Hall. This I didn't need just after lunch on a Monday.

Everyone in the Hall stared at us. But nobody offered to help. Bloody stuck-up little – Can't even bother to help a fellow student – What the hell were the teachers doing? Can't believe the nerve –

"Need some help?" asked a voice.

Thank you God, I silently said, turning to the angelic voice. I was startled when I saw James Potter and Sirius Black. But I smiled gratefully. "Thanks."

Together, the four of us managed to carry Dorcas out of the Hall. I don't think any of us, even me, would have been able to get a stretcher spell done. Way too nerve-wracking.

As soon as we got outside and we heard them start to talk again, Sirius conjured a stretcher for Dorcas. We all began to walk to the Hospital Wing. Emmeline kept throwing me furtive glances. I had no idea why.

"Now, shouldn't you lot be at – Oh my Merlin! What on earth happened?" Madam Pomfrey rushed over and felt Dorcas forehead.

"She had a panic attack," I said, remembering just in time to stand on one leg in front of Madam Pomfrey.

Madam Pomfrey's eyebrows shot up. "A panic attack? My goodness! Leave her on this bed; I'll go grab some calming draught." She bustled into her office.

"You two can go if you want," said Emmeline to James and Sirius.

"Nah, we'll stay. Make sure Meadowes is alright," said Sirius.

Emmeline threw me her furtive-est glance yet.

Come to think of it, I'm not entirely sure that's a word…

I gave her a quick glare then pulled her aside. "What the hell is your problem?" I whispered at her. "Are you trying to throw your eyeballs at me or something?"

"No, of course not," said Emmeline, giving me a strange look. "But can't you see? Why on earth do Potter and Black want to take Dorcas with us to the Hospital Wing, after lunch, on a Monday?"

"They're acting nice," I said defensively. "Although, perhaps they wanted to get out of Transfiguration with us…" I added as an afterthought.

"You're blind Lily," said Emmeline. "Honestly! You know that Potter likes you –"

"Who doesn't," I muttered darkly.

"And obviously Black is –"

"In love with you!" I said excitedly.

Emmeline looked like she was about to thump me. "Lily Evans!"

"What?" I said dumbfounded.

"Are you a carrot-top, or are you a dumb blonde?"

"Carrot-top?" I bristled. "Tell me how on earth I resemble –"

"Lily…" Now Emmeline looked ready to cry. "Sirius plus Dorcas equals…"

Realization exploded through my brain. "Oh!"

"'Oh,' she says," muttered Emmeline.

"Do you think –" I noticed James and Sirius giving us really weird looks. Probably 'cause of Emmeline's increasingly erratic mood swings. I lowered my voice. "You think Sirius likes our Dorcas?"

"Is there another Dorcas we know?"

"Well, Dorcas isn't exactly ours, you see, so I'm not entirely sure –"

"Lily…of course he likes that Dorcas! Do we know another one?" She didn't wait for me to answer. "Do you understand now?"

"Well yeah, but –"

Emmeline had turned away from me. Rude girl.

"Miss Evans? Miss Vance?" said Madam Pomfrey, having reappeared beside Dorcas. "I think she's coming around."

Emmeline zoomed over like a mother tending to her child. She began to brush the hair off Dorcas' face.

She really was acting weird today.

Dorcas sat up slowly. She took a deep breath and pushed Emmeline away. "I'm fine, Emmeline," she said. She looked up at Madam Pomfrey with her usual determined glint. "Can I get out of this damn place now?"

Madam Pomfrey looked like she didn't want her to leave. Sometimes I think she's rather lonely and only keeps people there for unreasonable amounts of time just so she can have a companion.

But that's on my sympathetic days.

"Fine. The five of you; get to class!"

Emmeline and I helped Dorcas get off the bed and I put my arm around her she and Emmeline walked, I limped out of the Hospital Wing. The two boys followed.

"Hey Dorcas," began Emmeline slyly, giving me a quick look, "do you think Black likes you?"

Dorcas glanced behind her at James and Sirius. She grinned at us. "'Course not."

We stared at her. She grinned even wider.

"He's in love with me!"

**.x.x.x.**

_**Disclaimer:**__** These characters are not mine. I wonder if Rowling would swap them for a bar of chocolate though…**_

**Okay, I only just realized that I haven't put disclaimers on any of my previous chapters. I'm going back to do that! Please, do not sue me.**

**Got some great feedback from my last chapter, so here's a new one! I like to try and get them up quickly, but sadly we only have dial-up and with my school holidays and everything, I have so much shopping to do! Plus, December Boys needs to be seen…Oh, and all those episodes of Carnivále need to be watched…and I should probably finish those assignments…**

**Anyway! Hope that you all like this chapter; I personally don't think it's so hot. Maybe fans of the series **_**Summer Heights High**_** will see that connection between Ja'mie and Dorcas. :D **

**I've already got ideas for chapter five screaming in my head; I hate it when ideas do that. But I should have the thing done soon, and hopefully I'll have it up ASAP!**

**Review please! I appreciate them so much! I love having people telling me their fave parts! Then I know what I'm doing right. :)**


	5. The Talking Stars

Okay. So you're probably wondering why Dorcas, Emmeline and I were awake at eleven o'clock on a Monday night.

I'm sorry. I lied. I was the only one awake. Dorcas was asleep with her hair dipping into an ink pot. Emmeline was long gone; having been swallowed by her beanbag.

We were up at this time, sorry; I was up at this time of night because we were supposed to be planning the party. Mainly so Dorcas wouldn't have any more of her panic attacks.

So what had we gotten done? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Got a few of the plans for decorations, but that's about it.

Our dorm-mates had long left us; they were sleeping in their friends' dormitories. I understood how they felt. Our candles and wands were pretty bright.

So there I was, hardly awake myself. I was feeling a bit lonely, as well just that little bit claustrophobic. That one little window couldn't possibly be providing us with enough air…

Struggling with my own paranoia, I threw on my fluffy dressing-gown and bunny slippers. I gathered up the parchment sheets where we were deciding what teachers to invite, a quill and an ink pot, and headed on down to the common room.

I dumped all the things on the desk down there and went over to open the large window. I breathed in the cold night air deeply before heading back over to the desk.

After staring at the teacher plans for a full twenty minutes, I decided to give up. Dorcas' words kept going around my head.

_Earlier that night…_

"_So what teachers are we gonna invite? McGonagall would be good, don't you think?"_

"_Lily, we've already told you, she is __not__ coming."_

"_Why not?"_

"_Because she would ruin the night, like Winnie said." _

"_But, come on Dorcas, she would –"_

"_Lily, face it, you can't pick teachers that are any good for a party."_

_Back to the story…_

"Stuff it," I muttered, grabbing a clean piece of parchment and moving to write a letter to my mother and father.

Monday 10th December 1977

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_The party is happening on Saturday, the fifteenth. We've been working hard, and we've sent out invites out, but planning a party for most of the seventh years is proving harder than we first thought. We've only had a couple of replies so far. It would be a real pity if we have to cancel the thing just 'cause no-one wanted to come. Hopefully they'll come and tell us if they're coming by tomorrow. _

_MUMMY! WE ARE REALLY STUCK FOR IDEAS! WE HAVE NO IDEA OF HOW TO DECORATE THE ROOM, LET ALONE TEACHERS THAT WE WANT TO COME! WE ARE REALLY SCARED! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO? MUMMY! YOU HAVE TO HELP US!_

_All my love,_

_Lily._

I read my letter once more to make sure it sounded okay. Shaking my head, I realized that it sounded way too desperate. I screwed it up and threw it into the dying embers of the fire. I made a mental note to write a better one tomorrow.

I yawned widely and looked over at the window. I let out a small shriek.

James Potter was standing there. He didn't even blink.

"Potter?" I said nervously. "I didn't hear you come down."

He didn't answer at first. His face was blue and eerie-looking in the moonlight. "Evening Evans. Nice night, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I, uh, guess it is." I stood up and limped over to the window.

"You invited me. And Sirius. And Remus." He still didn't look at me.

I'd been wondering if he'd gotten the invitations. "I did. That is to say we did – I mean I didn't want to – but Emmeline –" Crap. I was rambling. And digging myself a nice little hole to bury myself in.

He turned to face me. I actually think that my heart stopped. His eyes looked so –

Wait.

…

Stupid brain.

He looked back out the window. "I like looking at the stars," he said softly. "They make all my problems just slip away."

This was one of the weirdest conversations I had ever had. "They're, uh, nice," I said, unable to come up with anything just slightly smarter.

"They talk to me sometimes."

Okay, this was officially the weirdest conversation I had ever had. "Do they now?" I said, just a hint of 'You're crazy aren't you?' in my voice.

"They tell me what I should do."

I think this conversation had surpassed all levels of weird. "James?" I said, really nervous this time.

He blinked and faced me again. "Lily?"

We stared at each other for a moment. I think I stopped breathing.

"James?" I said, so softly this time, I don't actually think he could have possibly heard me.

"Lily! What –"

We both turned around.

Emmeline was standing on the girls' staircase. I saw her flush red in the moonlight. She clapped her hands to her mouth. "Oops! Sorry…I just – I'll be going." She scurried back up the stairs.

I turned back around. James was so close to me; I could smell his cologne again. Which was weird, considering –

Shut up for a minute, would you brain?

James looked at me for a moment longer. I think we both realized the moment had gone. Damn Emmeline, she is so gonna pay, that little –

"We're coming to the party, Evans," said James. He gave me a little smile.

Oh my God, he's cute…

Stupid, stupid, stupid brain.

**.x.x.x.**

The next morning, I woke up with Emmeline and Dorcas bearing down over me. I screamed.

Well, wouldn't you, if you'd woken up to the sight of Dorcas' bed-hair?

I thought so.

"What the hell are you doing?" I said haughtily, pushing them away. I glanced at my bedside clock. It was five in the morning.

Emmeline grinned her little sly smile at me. "Lily Evans, you have to spill about what happened last night."

Dorcas nodded, her bed-hair on the verge of toppling into her face. I saw the ends of her hair were still black form the ink.

I looked at them both, shocked. Then my emotions turned into boiling, bubbling, lava-like, anger. "Nothing! All thanks to you, Emmeline! I could have kissed him, but no! You barge on in! It's not like I like him or anything, is it?" I glared at her and threw off my bed sheets. I stomped off (if that's possible with a limp) and locked myself in the bathroom.

I sank down the wall onto the ground. I'd just admitted I liked him, didn't I?

Crap.

I had a nice, long, hot shower and tried to calm my damn emotions down. I wrapped a towel around myself and opened the door slowly.

Emmeline and Dorcas were sitting together on Emmeline's beanbag. I grabbed my robes without looking at them and went back into the bathroom. Dressing myself slowly, I thought about what I should say to my friends. Should I be angry that they made me spill that I like James? Or should I just welcome them with open arms; I mean we were best friends. …

I opened the door again and limped over to them. I sat down in front of them, so I was actually lower than them. They looked down at me.

"Sorry," I said carefully. "I didn't mean to explode at you like that."

Emmeline and Dorcas blinked in sync.

That was weirdly timed.

Then Emmeline smiled, and Dorcas' grin appeared on her face. Then they launched themselves onto me and began to tickle me.

"Lily likes James!" said Emmeline in a sing-song voice.

"Lily looooves James!" cried Dorcas.

"Stop it!" I squealed, trying to shove them off. "Guys! Quit it!"

By the time we'd calmed down enough to breath properly, it was seven-thirty.

"Come on," I said, getting to my feet. "Let's go have some breakfast."

I opened the dormitory door. Emmeline and Dorcas exchanged a glance behind my back.

I stood in the doorway, waiting. "Well?"

They grinned their evil smiles again and tackled me.

"Hey!" I screamed as we rolled as a three-person ball down the stairs.

We rolled to a halt at someone's feet. Still laughing, we all stood up, and I turned to apologize.

"Sorry… James?"

Emmeline and Dorcas elbowed me.

I gave them a quick glare. I turned back to James. "Sorry. They, uh, tackled me."

"Did they, Evans?" He smiled. "Do you want me to get them back for you?"

Since when did James become my bodyguard?

… Odd.

"Nah, I can handle them." I turned back to my friends. "Come on; we've got to go down the marble staircase."

Emmeline and Dorcas exchanged a fearful look.

**.x.x.x.**

_**Disclaimer: **_**Do I look like J. K. Rowling? Well, do I? Do I?**

**Chapter five! I got this done faster than I thought! I like this chapter, but it's not as my favourite…Now, I'm gonna have to think of some things for the next chapter, but it should have something happening in Herbology. … Hopefully, if all goes well.**

**I saw December Boys:D**

**Oh! And I finished two of my three assignments on Monday! Hurrah! **

**Reviews are, as always, appreciated:)**


	6. Herbology Explosions

"Ugh," said Dorcas, looking at her timetable as we walked to the greenhouses for first period. "Guess what we have first."

"Herbology," said Emmeline and I in unison.

Dorcas stared. "How'd you know?"

I didn't answer. Emmeline just rolled her eyes. She seemed to be doing a lot of that these days.

Must be how she deals with all this party-stress.

When we reached the greenhouses, Professor Sprout took our class inside.

We could see rows of different coloured pots along all the benches, along with a pot with a plant in it with each group.

"Partners!" Professor Sprout trilled. "Someone different than usual, please!"

Emmeline and Dorcas moved to a row of pots next to me. I hmphed silently to myself. I always go with Emmeline, and Dorcas always goes with some Hufflepuff girl; I think her name's Polly-Anne Sayers. She's not invited, if you're wondering.

Now I was stuck. Crap.

And Chuck was walking over.

Double crap.

"Hiya Lily!"

"Hello…Chuck."

"Have you got a partner?"

"I believe she does."

This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. It was like he knew.

Though, after last night, that doesn't really surprise me.

"What do you mean by that, Potter?" Chuck said it with a hint of contempt. Of course he hates James Potter. Any boy who likes me does. Damn boys and their competitive streaks.

"I mean, I think Lily already has a partner."

"Who?" demanded Chuck.

I have to admit I was wondering the same thing.

Though I did have a feeling…

"Me, Bare." Now James' voice was the one full of contempt. "So find someone else before you're stuck with Tina."

(Tina Swid is the stupidest girl in our year. She is definitely not invited.)

Chuck threw James one last scathing look before marching off.

I can handle this. I am mature. I don't go all wobbly like Dorcas when I get a crush. I'm not a wobbly person. I am mature.

Oh Merlin, look at his hair…

Stop it Evans. You are mature. Not wobbly.

I could still feel my cheeks reddening no matter how many times I told myself I was mature. "Thanks Potter. You, uh –"

I couldn't finish. I looked up from my shoes. He was looking straight at me.

"Don't mention it," he said. He looked away and looked at the pots instead. "What are we s'posed to do?"

"The plant is a Wymin Atlass. It's a hybrid of two other plants," said Professor Sprout loudly. "Work out what they are and figure out which pot has the ideal conditions for it."

"Hybrid?" repeated Black across the room.

Most of the other class were wearing similar quizzical looks.

"Using all you have learnt so far," continued Professor Sprout, "you should be able to work it out. Begin!"

Almost everyone in the greenhouse stared at each other.

James ran a hand over his hair and pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. "So, uh –"

I cut him off. I silently apologized. In my head. "It's easy. It's a hybrid of a Wymin Flatulak and –"

"Flatulak?" repeated James. Honestly, no wonder he and Black are friends.

"And a Tulip de Atlass. It's a cinch."

James still stared at me. It was as if I was speaking a different language.

"Look," I said, trying to say this in the most basic way possible, "it needs dry soil. Which pot has dry soil?"

Finally, he seemed to understand. "Oh." He looked at the pots quickly. "I guess it would be that one." He pointed to the blue pot.

"Well done," I said with a trace of sarcasm.

"Hey, we aren't all Professor Sprouts in the making," said James.

I was about to bite back when I realized he was only kidding.

I am mature. I know a joke. I am mature.

I think I'm about to put holes in my hands from digging my nails in so much.

I am mature.

"You alright?" asked James, peering into my face. "You're twitching."

Dammit.

"I'm fine. Just help me replant this thing."

He carefully pulled the plant out of the pot it was in and I transferred it into the blue one.

I began to smooth down the soil, but James' hand was suddenly over mine.

"You missed a root," he said softly, moving my hand with his.

I am mature, I am mature, I am mature, I am mature –

Stuff you brain!

He's touching my hand! (Oh, I just want to swoon!) I think I could just –

"Done."

I managed a small smile. Then I checked to see how Emmeline and Dorcas were going.

Emmeline looked at me with a bright expression. "How about we have Sprout as a chaperone?"

"Flitwick'd be good," said James, guessing what we were talking about. That was quick.

Hey…

Why didn't I think of that?

"Yeah!" agreed Emmeline. "That's a –"

"Dorcas, no!" I all but yelled at my friend.

Dorcas looked up at me. "What?"

"Wymin Atlasses repel water! You'll blow the greenhouse up if you plant it in the yellow," I told her.

Dorcas scoffed at me. "Sure Lily. I'll blow the greenhouse up."

The last thing I remember is her putting the Wymin Atlass into the yellow pot's soil.

**.x.x.x.**

"Is everyone alright?" called out Professor Sprout.

I rolled over and squinted in the bright light. Wasn't light normally a more green in greenhouses? And where were the walls?

And, uh, just wondering, why was I and the rest of the class lying on the floor?

I went to rub my head, trying to remember something. But the effort became too much so I let my arm flop beside me.

"Ouch!" cried a voice next to me.

I pulled my arm up quickly. "Sorry."

James Potter sat up beside me. He was squinting worse than I had been. "Where are my glasses?"

I sat up too, even though my head was swimming. I saw his glasses by my feet. I picked them up.

They fell apart in my hands.

I held them in front of James' face.

He squinted at them. "Oh, bugger," he muttered. "Can you fix them for me, please Evans? I can't see a thing and I'd rather not repair something wrong."

I pulled out my wand and tapped his glasses. They sprang back together, good as new.

"Thanks," James said, taking them from me and putting them back on.

"Is everyone okay?" Professor Sprout called out again.

"Yes," a few people chorused. Other moaned and rolled over, and some remained lifeless.

The few of us who were able to stand up went around reviving the others who didn't appear to be alive.

In the end, everyone was still alive.

Professor Sprout stood up in front of us all, as we were sitting on the ground, and said in her I'm-not-trying-to-be-angry-but-I'll-be-very-angry-in-a-minute voice, "Who planted the Wymin Atlass in the wrong pot?"

Everyone looked around at each other.

Dorcas very slowly and very nervously raised her hand.

It is at this point where I will say Professor Sprout does not normally swear. Nor does she normally yell loud enough to bring half the school to the windows, and Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Vector down to the greenhouses.

Of course, I am going to not remember anything of what she said here, so as to save Professor Sprout's non-swearing, non-really-really-really-really-loud-yelling reputation.

So…

…………………………………………………………………………………

_Fifteen minutes later…_

"And you have a detention Meadowes! For the next month! Do not think you can skive off, because you can't! Tuesday nights! Down here! Helping me replant the many plants you destroyed!"

I don't think I've ever seen Dorcas look so sorry for what she'd done before. "I'm really sorry, Professor," she said for the sixteenth time.

"Get to your dormitories," said Professor Sprout wearily. "Class dismissed."

**.x.x.x.**

As we sat down at dinner that night, Emmeline, a very sad looking Dorcas and me, a Hufflepuff girl came over. But she wasn't just walking over as they do sometimes. She was carrying a huge stack of parchment slips.

"Lily Evans?" she asked through them when she reached us.

"That's me," I said, a little nervously. That stack did not look safe. There had to be at least twenty pieces in there. And they were of all different thicknesses and lengths, which couldn't have made carrying them any easier for the girl.

"These are most of the replies for the party you're holding," she said. "Here." She dumped them onto the table, landing most of them in our stews.

"Thanks," I said, picking out one that said, '_I, Julie-Ann Podgington, am coming to the party of –_'

And the rest of it was smudged.

And who was Julie-Ann Podgington, anyway?

"You're welcome." The girl continued to stand behind us.

I blinked at her. She blinked back.

Dorcas nudged me. "I think she wants a tip," she whispered.

"Oh, right," I said. I rummaged through my pockets and managed to find a, only one month out of date, Chocolate Frog. "Here," I said, giving it to the girl with a contorted smile.

She blinked down at it. "Thanks," she said, the sarcasm dripping from her voice. She picked it up using the smallest amount of skin on her fingers to do it, and carried it back to her table an arm's length in front.

"Remind me to never ask you for a tip, Lily," said Emmeline, handing me another soggy invite.

**.x.x.x.**

**Okay, I seriously do not know what is going on with this story! Random ideas come up! And then they're typed up!**

**:D**

**Thanks for reading this chapter! Okay, everything's gonna start happening next chapter; as in all the décor and things are gonna be decided and finalized. Well it will be Wednesday!**

**Anyway, as always, remember to review:D**


	7. MR HONEY BUNNY!

All I can think about right now is how life likes to slap you. People call it karma. I call it a damn long stroke of bad luck. And we never would have guessed it would hit on Wednesday.

"My clothes!" screamed Dorcas.

I groaned and rolled over. It was too early to be listening to Dorcas' cries.

"Somebody care!" she screamed. "My beautiful clothes!"

"Dorcas," I groaned. "Can't you just go back to bed?"

She came over and ripped my blankets back. Not nice on a chilly morning. "Lily! My clothes!"

"What?" This was all too much. It was five o'clock for goodness' sake.

Then Emmeline screamed. "My books! My precious books!"

"Oh for God's sake," I muttered, burying my head in my pillow. I reached for Mr Honey Bunny.

All I grabbed was a soft, plush arm.

Arm?

ARM?

"MR HONEY BUNNY!" I screamed, louder than Dorcas has ever screamed before. I scrambled up, practically retwisting my ankle in the process, and threw myself onto the ground. The pain in my ankle could wait for a while.

Mr Honey Bunny was in pieces.

After an hour, our dormitory was in quite a state. Dorcas had pulled out every piece of clothing she owned, and every single piece was dyed brown (her least favourite colour), as well as ripped to pieces. She was sitting in the middle of the dormitory, silently crying. Poor thing. I probably should have comforted her.

Emmeline had stared at her books for about half an hour before beginning the sad process of repairing each and every one. She sat on her bed with the big pile of ripped-to-shreds books beside her. She wasn't saying anything, apart from a soft, "_Reparo_," every few seconds.

Meanwhile, I had found every piece of Mr Honey Bunny apart from his head. I looked up to the top of my wardrobe, and there it was. And there was a note pinned to his ear. I jumped up, onto my right foot, and Summoned his head down to me.

"_Reparo_," said Emmeline.

"What…does…it say…Lily?" asked Dorcas, between sobs.

"_This is for not inviting me, and also because you blew up the greenhouse_," I read aloud.

"_Reparo_," said Emmeline.

"Why'd they have to attack the clothes?" moaned Dorcas. "Who's it from?"

"I dunno," I said, turning the note over. But I did have an inkling.

I've probably never mentioned her before, but we also have another dormitory mate. Her name's Kelly Tinkle. Honestly. Anyway, yeah, she's a bit of a … Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Yeah. So, uh, she wasn't invited, naturally enough. But she does have a bit of a reputation for holding grudges.

Which might explain why she gets along with Myrtle so well…

Well, that's all the reason I need. It was her.

"It was Kelly, wasn't it?" sobbed Dorcas. "That little stuck-up –"

"_Reparo_," said Emmeline.

"– God, I hate her," finished Dorcas.

I'd stopped listening. I looked down at the pieces of Mr Honey Bunny. "_Reparo_," I muttered. He sprang back together. I hugged him fondly.

"_Reparo_," said Emmeline.

"Oh shut up Emmeline," said Dorcas, getting herself back together enough to change her robes back to normal. "Let's go to breakfast."

**.x.x.x.**

"See, I've got this awesome plan," said Sirius. "What we do is –"

"Hang on, what are we planning again?" asked Peter.

"We're planning…" began Sirius. He paused. "What are we planning James?"

"I dunno; you're the one who said you had a plan."

"Oh for Merlin's sake," muttered Remus.

"So what was your plan?" asked James.

"I don't actually know."

"This is the stupidest conversation I've ever had to listen to," said Remus.

"No, I think we've had stupider," said James. "Remember that one where Sirius didn't understand our Muggle Studies homework?"

"Ugh, don't remind me," said Remus.

"Hey, it's not my fault Muggles make everything more complicated for themselves."

"Oh, yes, and giving them magic would make everything better," said Remus sarcastically.

"Duh."

"What was that homework again?" asked Peter.

"Something about microwaves," replied James.

"Oh yeah!"

"Not again…"

"Oh, stop spoiling the fun Moony," said James.

"I just don't understand why Muggles can't cook things over fire! Wouldn't it make it easier?"

"We've already had this argument Padfoot! No."

"But they're so much hotter and cooler looking…"

"And they have a bigger potential of killing them," said James.

"Don't try and tell me that Muggles haven't died from microwaves."

"It would surely hurt a hell of a lot if it fell on you," said Peter.

"Hey, Sirius, people can fit into fires. Try fitting a Muggle into a microwave," said James.

"How big's a microwave?"

"'Bout this big." James made smallish rectangle signs with his hands.

"Hmm…if you cut them up…"

"Why am I getting déjà vu?" muttered Remus. "I feel as though we've had this conversation before."

"We did. A year ago," James said to him. "And Sirius, if you cut them up, then they'll be dead and so that wouldn't really prove anything. Apart from the fact that you're a cannibal."

"What's a cannibal?"

"Oh for –"

"We've had this conversation before too, haven't we Moony?" asked Peter.

"No Wormtail. I've never heard it in my life."

"Lily. Earth to Lily."

Emmeline's hand was waving in front of my face.

I shook my head. "Huh?"

"You've been staring at the Marauders for the past five minutes," she told me.

"Oh, have I?" I said. "Interesting conversation though. Cannibalism seems to be a hot topic."

Emmeline looked at me as though I was mad. "Right. Uh, anyway…We need to get those decorations done and – is Mr Honey Bunny in your hair?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Of course. I can't bear to let him out of my sight. Nice style though, don't you think?" I twisted around to show her how I'd tied his long arms around my ponytail.

"Sure." Emmeline was looking extremely scared now. "About the decorations…Since it's s'posed to be a Christmas party, I thought red and green."

"No," I said with sarcasm. "What other colours were you thinking of? Orange and blue? We're not going for colour-un-coordination for this season."

"No, of course not." Emmeline frowned and pulled out a notebook. I saw her scribble out the words, _orange and blue colour scheme_.

Merlin.

**.x.x.x.**

"So are we gonna get revenge on that little –"

"Dorcas!"

"Or not?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Not sure," I finally answered. "Do we want to?"

Dorcas gave me her 'are-you-stupid-or-what?' look. "She dyed my clothes brown and ripped them. I sure do."

"She ripped apart all my books," said Emmeline in a small voice.

Dorcas looked over at me. I looked over her head and out of the Charms classroom's windows. "I guess she did rip Mr Honey Bunny to pieces…"

"With no sympathy for the poor bunny's feelings," said Dorcas with a shake of her head.

I looked back at Dorcas with determination. "Revenge it is."

"Flitwick," hissed Emmeline. She calmly levitated her feather with ease. Dorcas and I did the same.

"Good job girls!" squeaked Professor Flitwick as he walked by.

Dorcas grinned evilly as he walked away. "Watch this, girls," she said to us. "I've been practicing for a while now." Dorcas levitated her feather again, and then she sharply jabbed at it with her wand.

The feather exploded in midair like a mini-firework.

We both clapped for her. Dorcas was pretty good at coming up with new spells. Even if they were mostly explosive.

Emmeline put her serious expression back on. "Dorcas, how are we s'posed to get revenge on that Tinkle if we have no idea of how to do it?"

"And that is where we can help, ladies," said Sirius, leaning forward from the desks behind us.

"Have you been eavesdropping on us?" asked Dorcas.

"Maybe I have and maybe I haven't. You'll never know. Do you want our help, or not?"

"What do you mean by 'help'?" I asked skeptically.

"He means," now James leant forward, "that we can help you exact your revenge upon the unfortunate person or persons."

"Tax free," added Sirius.

They leaned forward for another moment. Then James frowned and poked Remus.

With a sigh, he leaned forward. "And we take all the blame, no matter what the consequences," he said in an automatic monotone.

Dorcas nudged me. "I get the feeling they've been practicing this," she whispered with a smile.

I smiled back. I was glad that Pettigrew wasn't here. He had a meeting with McGonagall. He is so annoying when he talks. I can't stand the little –

"So who is to be our victim?" asked James. He looked directly at me.

Think of the party. Think of the party.

He's coming to the party…

Damn it.

"Hold on; we haven't even said if we wanted your help yet," said Emmeline.

"Of course you want our help," said Sirius. "We're the Marauders. Who wouldn't want our help?"

Emmeline's mouth twisted. It was hard to figure out whether she was laughing or trying to do an impression of McGonagall.

"How much?" asked Dorcas warily.

"For you, Evans –"

"Hey, I asked the question!"

James sighed and rolled his eyes. If he wasn't so intent on me, I bet he and Emmeline would have had children by now. "Okay. For you, Meadowes, and you, Vance, and of course you, Evans," – here he grinned at me – "we'll cut you a little deal. The luxury package for just …" James glanced at Sirius and Remus. Sirius was shaking his head profusely, and Remus was levitating his feather with a bored look on his face. "Uh…" James gave us a small smile. "Fifteen Galleons?"

Sirius looked mutinous. "Fifteen? Are you mad? That doesn't divide evenly by four! Plus, that's a pure profit loss on our behalf!"

Dorcas, Emmeline, James and I all looked at him. Even Remus looked astonished.

"What?" said Remus. "Did you just say … divide by … Sirius?" He waved a hand in front of Sirius' face. "Is that really you?"

"Why? What?"

We all shook our heads and turned away from him.

"You've got yourself a deal, Potter," said Dorcas. "Kelly Tinkle's the name."

Emmeline began to protest, but Dorcas didn't listen.

"Give her everything you've got."

**.x.x.x.**

"Right, so we're holding our party in that really big classroom on the ground floor," said Emmeline, writing it down. "We really should have organized this earlier. Where will the guests go?"

I gave Emmeline a look. "But I thought we'd already decided on that. So I wrote it on the invites."

Now Emmeline gave me a look. "What? How could you have possibly known?"

I racked my brains for a reason. Finally, I decided to just stick with the truth. "I had a dream where we decided on the party place."

Emmeline blinked at me. Then she blinked a few more times and turned away from me. "Right. Uh. Okay."

"Paper chain's done!" said Dorcas happily, holding up the end of chain of red and green paper.

"Uh, Dorcas," I began cautiously, looking at the long chain half-piled up on the common room floor. "How long is that chain?"

"Six kilometres," said Dorcas proudly. "Or roughly 3.75 miles."

Emmeline and I exchanged a look. Then Emmeline gasped.

"Dorcas, the end's on fire!"

The end of the chain had gotten into the fire and was indeed on fire. Dorcas squealed and whipped the chain around, in an attempt to get the end out of the flame.

In the end, she managed to set the whole thing on fire.

"Oh bother," said Dorcas, as she sat down in defeat. "I spent twenty minutes on that." Then she immediately brightened. "Guess I'd better start again!"

Emmeline rubbed her eyes. "I'm tired." She yawned widely. "Think I might go to bed. Night –"

"AARRGGHH!" screamed a voice from upstairs.

Emmeline's eyes widened. Then she half-closed them and held her hands together in what looked to be prayer. "Dear Merlin, please don't let that be Kelly –"

"WHO –" Kelly came tearing down the stairs in a complete rage. "WHO DARED TO PUT DEAD BILLYWIGS IN MY BED? EVERYONE KNOWS THAT I AM ALLERGIC –"

But Kelly was unable to complete her sentence, as at that point, her skin became covered in hundreds upon thousands of boils. They spread over her face, leaving her to look like an overgrown boil herself.

Emmeline had begun to laugh with most of the other Gryffindors, and Dorcas joined in. I found myself grinning, and no-one laughed louder than the Marauders.

Kelly swallowed loudly as the laughter died down. Then she glared at us.

"Mr Honey Bunny deserved it."

**.x.x.x.**

_**Disclaimer:**__** J. K. Rowling is a genius. In case you can't tell, I'm not a genius. So obviously, this is not really mine.**_

**Apologies. I was s'posed to put this up last night, but my brother was on the internet, so I didn't have the chance. Forgive me.**

**I think that this is one of the longest chapters that I've ever written! Wow. It wasn't really supposed to go for this long…**

**Anyway, I hope the miles measurement was correct for all you Imperial System users. We use the Metric System here so… Kilometres rule! D**

**I love getting all those lovely reviews! And thanks to those who put in their favourite parts of the chapters (I'm looking at you, Acelinn!). Remember to review this chappie!**

**Reading and reviewing makes the world go 'round! D **

**(By the way, the next chapter will contain a little more revenge and a lot more arguing. Differences of opinion will happen! Should be up by next week…If all goes well with my SOSE assignment…)**


	8. Emmeline! Toast?

**Note:**** Lily's handwriting is written in italics, Dorcas' is bold and Emmeline's is italic and bold.**

**.x.x.x.**

"Lily, you have to wake up right now!"

"Dorcas, come on, it's a Thursday…"

"Lily!"

I opened my eyes a crack and saw Dorcas standing over me. Her long hair tickled my nose.

"What? What is it?"

"Tinkle," said Dorcas maliciously.

That woke me up. I snapped my eyes opened and jumped out of bed.

Landing on my bad ankle.

"Ouch!"

"Oh stop it. Come on, you have to come downstairs."

I got dressed quickly and followed Dorcas out our door. "Where's Emmeline?" I asked.

"Breakfast," said Dorcas. "She missed out. Sucker."

I gave Dorcas a slightly scared look. I didn't think I wanted to see what ever the hell was going on.

We reached the foot of the stairs. I looked at what the Marauders had done with shock.

So this was why she wasn't in her bed this morning.

Kelly was strung up with rope to the ceiling (and it was a damn high ceiling at that) above a pit of Flobberworms. And everybody knows that Kelly Tinkle hates Flobberworms.

Funnily enough, I couldn't hear her screaming. Or maybe that was because she had a piece of tape over her mouth.

"Step right up ladies and gents!" boomed a voice from next to the pit of Flobberworms. If he hadn't made me look at him every day for the past seven years, I may not have recognized him.

But I did recognize him. And it was James Potter.

"One movement from this young lady up here and she will fall at her own peril to this lovely pit of extremely friendly Flobberworms! But it's not like she knows that!" James grinned at the crowd, tipping his boater hat to the ladies.

I looked at Dorcas. She was grinning with absolute maniacal happiness. She really hates Kelly.

I found myself smiling. That is, until Gryffindor Tower was visited by our very angry Head of House.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

"Bother," muttered Dorcas. "I want her to fall."

"She still might," I said. "Look at her wiggle!"

Professor McGonagall stormed over to the pit and Kelly. "Who are you, young man? Because you are in a lot of trouble!"

Kelly gave one last strong jerk to get some attention towards her, and that's what she got. The rope snapped and she plummeted into the pit with a sticky-taped scream and roars from the crowd.

James smiled at all the applauding people, and then turned back to McGonagall.

"I," said James, not removing his fake moustache, "am the Surprise Spruiker!" He then threw down some kind of pod and disappeared in the smoke that followed.

All the gathered Gryffindors clapped wildly for him.

"QUIET!" roared Professor McGonagall. She glared at us. "Get to breakfast, all of you. I have to rescue Miss Tinkle."

I swear she sighed after saying that.

We all hurried out of the Tower and down the marble staircase to the Great Hall. We streamed in, chattering excitedly about what had happened.

Dorcas and I found Emmeline and sat next to her.

"You would not believe what you missed," said Dorcas with the biggest smile.

Peter, Remus and Sirius sat down across from us. "Hello ladies," said Sirius smoothly. "How's Tinkle this morning?"

"You're brilliant," said Dorcas with pure admiration in her voice. "Brilliant."

"Oh, I can't take all the credit," said Sirius modestly. "It was mostly James after all."

Remus just rolled his eyes and sighed loudly.

"Did she scream?" asked Sirius, an eager look on his face.

"Oh yeah," I said. "Like a Banshee."

Sirius held up his hand for Remus to hi-five. Remus gave Sirius a look. Sirius gave Remus a fiercer look. Remus gave an even fiercer look. Sirius sighed and let his hand drop. Remus smiled triumphantly.

"Uh, anyway," said Dorcas, giving the boys an odd look. She turned away from them and back to me and Emmeline. "So, now that we have everyone's reply, we can focus on the catering."

Emmeline and I looked at Dorcas with shocked looks.

"What?" said Dorcas, her eyes wide. Her hand was holding a quill poised over her parchment.

"You," Emmeline said.

"You're – You're – You're organized," I said, blinking to make sure that it was indeed Dorcas in front of me.

Dorcas gave me a quizzical look. "Um, yeah. So?"

Emmeline and I both shook our heads.

"What are we gonna do?" asked Emmeline. "Do it all ourselves, or get a house-elf to do it? Personally, I'm leaning towards the house-elf."

Dorcas and I gave her a look. "That's because you've had one since you've been born," I said.

"You know, I bet she doesn't even know how to cook," said Dorcas. "Pure-bloods and their –"

"We're cooking it ourselves," said Emmeline firmly. "Write it down. We'll have to start cooking early Saturday morning."

Dorcas leaned over to me. "I think that we might have to start Friday morning, actually," she whispered.

I laughed. Emmeline looked at me sharply.

"What? What are you sniggering at?"

"Nothing," I said, struggling to stop myself from laughing.

I looked over at Dorcas, who mimed burning herself with her pumpkin juice. I couldn't help it, and neither could Dorcas. We both burst out laughing.

**.x.x.x.**

"It's a party Lily! A party! At night! It's not a lunch!"

"Oh, come on Emmeline, admit it, you can't cook a turkey!"

"I can so!" Emmeline scowled. "But it's also the fact that people aren't gonna be sitting down and taking a nice little plate of turkey, and those vegetables that everyone has at this time of year."

I rolled my eyes. "What about chicken then?"

"Lily…"

"Who has chicken for Christmas lunch anyway?"

"Australians. Fine, not chicken. How about duck?"

"Lily, face it, we are not having any traditional foods. Think desserts for this party."

Emmeline, Dorcas and I were all sitting in our dormitory during lunch. We were trying to brainstorm food ideas. It wasn't so successful so far.

"Desserts… How 'bout plum pudding?" asked Dorcas.

"Good," said Emmeline, writing it down.

"Ice cream?"

"Traditional, Lily."

"Oh, so one minute we want desserts, next minute it's traditional desserts," I said haughtily.

"What about…trifle?" suggested Dorcas.

"Okay," said Emmeline. "Lily?"

"Honey biscuits?"

"Uh, okay."

"My grandma makes them."

"Right."

"I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry Dorcas."

"Yeah, but we skipped lunch to discuss food, and now I'm really hungry."

"Fine. Let's go and get some lunch."

**.x.x.x.**

_So how much do we have to cook now?_

**Well, I hope you have a recipe for honey biscuits, because I certainly don't.**

_**Biscuits? What else was there?**_

_Trifle._

_**Oh dear.**_

**Told you she couldn't cook!**

_**I can so! Just not very well.**_

_Emmeline, it was either do it ourselves, or get the house-elves. And you firmly said yourself that we were gonna do it ourselves._

_**Yeah but –**_

**Face it. You can't cook.**

_**I can!**_

**Well, what can you cook? I doubt toast is gonna go down well.**

_What do you have against toast?_

**Nothing. I'm just –**

_**I can cook … uh … pancakes.**_

**Liar.**

_**I can!**_

_Look, we'll just get the house-elves to –_

_**No! We **__**will**__** cook it ourselves.**_

**Why is there suddenly an image in my mind of the castle burning down?**

"Girls…what is the meaning of this?"

"Nothing sir," I said quickly, snatching the parchment off the desk.

Professor Flitwick still looked suspicious. "Miss Evans…"

I then did something I never thought that I would do. I scrunched up the parchment and shoved it into my mouth.

Professor Flitwick looked disgusted. "Please see me after class, Miss Evans. We must discuss this new … behaviour."

"Yes sir," I managed to say around the soggy parchment ball.

**.x.x.x.**

**_Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all things related don't belong to me because... Well, I don't have the room, okay?_**

**Thanks for reading!! I wrote this chapter whilst listening to all the Christmas songs I just put onto my mp3. Does anyone else think I'm mad? **

**If anyone has any more ideas for desserts, feel free to send them in. :D I'd really appreciate it. I was gonna put in monopoles, as my grandfather makes them every year, but then I thought that I might be the only one who knows what they are! My grandma actually does make the honey biscuits too. I only eat the ones with icing on top. Aren't I picky?**

**Reviews are so nice! Spread the Christmas cheer!**


	9. You Got Gravy In My Hair

"No, I do not regularly eat parchment."

"Now, when did this parchment eating begin?"

"It never began. Can't I go yet?"

"No. Now, what made you eat the parchment?"

"Please."

"I said, no. Now then, we are going to have to follow your behaviour for the next couple of weeks, to make sure that you are –"

"OH FOR MERLIN'S SAKE, I'M FINE!"

Madam Pomfrey raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips. She does not make a good counsellor. "With that attitude, you certainly are not fine, Miss Evans. Please sit back down."

"Eat one bit of parchment, and suddenly you're crazy," I muttered to myself. I quickly realized that doing that was not going to help my cause.

"Talks to self regularly," murmured Madam Pomfrey, writing it down on her clipboard.

I held back a groan. "Please, Madam Pomfrey, I'm fine; honestly, can't I just go back to my dormitory now?"

Madam Pomfrey gave me a long stare. "Oh, if you must."

I sighed with happiness.

Madam Pomfrey gave me another long stare. Her eyes narrowed. "But, if you continue with this erratic behaviour, we will be seeing each other again."

"Yes, Madam Pomfrey," I said, standing up. Cheering inwardly, I left the Hospital Wing and headed for a classroom near the Great Hall. It was still Thursday, and I was hoping to help get the decorating started.

"About time," said Emmeline, as I walked in the door.

"Well, sorry," I said, not really meaning it. "It's not my fault the whole school thinks I'm mad."

"Not my fault either," said Emmeline. "I don't know why you ate the parchment in the first place."

"Hmph." I grabbed a paper chain and hopped onto a step ladder.

"Hey!" cried a voice that certainly wasn't Dorcas'. That was unexpected. "I'm pinning this up!"

I followed the paper chain with my eyes and finished at a figure I certainly did not want to look at right now.

"Nice of you to arrive, Evans," said James, pointing his wand at the paper chain he was in the middle of levitating. "But Emmeline already has our help."

I looked around and, darn it, there was Sirius, under the tinsel, along with that Peter. Remus was busily attempting to light the fireplace.

"_Incendio_," he said, jabbing his wand at the fireplace. "_Incendio_. Oh for Merlin's sake, _INCENDIO_! "

The fire burst to life in the grate. Remus jumped back with shock.

"Scared of a little fire, Lupin?" asked Dorcas from the other side of the room. She was putting together more red and green paper chains and had a sly smile on her face. "That's funny, 'cause I seem to remember Emmeline saying once –"

"_Silencio_," said Emmeline, with a bored tone. She continued to stick tinsel on the wall. "Funny how annoying you can get, Dorcas."

Dorcas couldn't say anything in retaliation, for obvious reasons, and so settled with giving Emmeline her best death glare.

Emmeline ignored Dorcas' look and carried on hanging up bits of tinsel along the walls underneath the paper chains.

"So, uh, what can I do?" I asked. It looked like everything was under control. Still, standing around was better than being interrogated by someone who obviously sees you as a mental patient.

"Dunno, psycho," said Emmeline, tossing out my new nickname casually. "What can mad people like you do?"

I glared at her.

She grinned back. "Go help Sirius and Peter put up that tinsel. They look like they're trying to hang themselves – HEY! DON'T DO THAT!" Emmeline suddenly shoved me out of the way as she leapt from her stepladder. She whipped out her wand and cut the tinsel from the two boys' necks. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU TWO THINKING? Honestly…"

Sirius and Peter shrugged and grinned.

"Stupid, stupid people," she muttered, walking back over to me. "Go make them sane again."

"Make them sane?" I repeated. I walked over to them to see what I could possibly do.

Sirius looked down at the tinsel and what Emmeline had done to it. He exchanged a glance with Peter. "Hey Vance!" Sirius called mockingly. "How are we s'posed to hang up this tinsel when it's in two inch pieces?"

Emmeline raised her eyes to the ceiling, and blatantly ignored them.

"Just put it back together," I said, coming over.

"Oh no," said Emmeline. "They'll just hang themselves again."

I rolled my eyes at her and began to stick the little pieces together. After we'd finished that, we began to stick it up around the room.

There seemed to be an awful lot of eye-rolling and ignoring going on today.

Halfway around, we caught up with James and his paper chain. His hand passed over mine to help pick up some tinsel I'd dropped.

"What are you doing tonight, Evans?" he whispered in my ear.

I blinked rapidly and turned to look at him. "What?" Oh crap, had I forgotten again? "Patrols, right? Sorry, I always –"

James cut my off by laughing. "No, not patrols. Not tonight. Meet me in the common room. Around nine. Okay?"

I nodded. Oh wow, this is just what I needed. A date with James. James Potter. A crazy person like me needs a break for a while. Though I didn't want to see him in the first place, I'm kinda glad he was here now.

As soon as we'd put up every single piece of tinsel, I left Peter plaiting small bits into Sirius' hair, and hurried over to Dorcas.

"Dorcas," I said quietly as she stuck window decorations on. "Guess what?"

Dorcas turned around and opened her mouth. No sound came out.

"Oh right." I quickly undid the spell.

"What?" asked Dorcas.

"I've got a date tonight!" I said excitedly.

Dorcas' eyes brightened. "That's fantastic! With James?"

I nodded elatedly.

Dorcas gave me a quick hug. "Nice one, girl. Now, you have little fingers; hold that while I shut the window."

I put my hand out, and then I snatched it back. "Hey! No! Find some other stupid victim."

Dorcas smiled devilishly. "Stupid, huh… Oh Sirius! Can you come over here a minute?"

I walked off, as Sirius came rushing over.

I went behind Emmeline and said, "Guess who's got a date tonight!"

I must have given Emmeline a bit of a shock because she jumped and nearly fell from her stepladder. "What? What is it?"

"Scare you, did I?" I asked mischievously.

"No," denied Emmeline firmly. "What? Who has a date?"

"Me," I said proudly.

"Great," she said flatly.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, annoyed that she wasn't happy for me.

"Well, considering I almost killed myself a minute ago, dates aren't that important, are they?"

"Fine," I said, "be a pessimist."

**.x.x.x.**

"Dinner…" rasped Dorcas. "Dinner…So close, but it seems so far…"

"Dorcas, the Great Hall is right next door," said Emmeline, who yawned as she spoke.

"Come on guys," I said, "we can finish this on Saturday morning. Let's get some food."

"Food?" whispered Sirius from where he had collapsed an hour earlier. "Did someone mention food?"

"Yes, Sirius," said James, pulling his friend up off the pile of botched paper chains. "Food. Come on now, good boy."

"You're talking to him like he's a dog or something," I said as we walked outside of the classroom. Emmeline locked the door behind us.

At my words, James and Sirius looked at each other and laughed loudly.

"What?" I asked. "Was it something I said?"

Sirius and James kept laughing. I gave up trying to understand.

The Marauders left us and went off to sit somewhere else while we girls sat down at the Gryffindor Table.

Dorcas lay her head down on the table. "I'm so tired… Thank goodness there's Friday to recuperate."

"You're always whinging Dorcas, give it a break for once," said Emmeline.

"What's up your nose?" asked Dorcas, giving Emmeline a contemptuous look.

Emmeline's face took on a injured expression. "Somebody likes you! Everybody likes you! And what do I get? Nothing! No boy ever likes me!" Emmeline ran off.

"Okay, that was weird," said Dorcas. She looked at the girl across from her. "Hey, can you pass me the gravy?"

The girl across from her glared at Dorcas and I. "No," she replied sharply.

"Um, why not? It's just gravy," said Dorcas, perplexed.

"Well, I'm using it."

"You don't even have any gravy on your plate," I said, trying to work out what was up with this girl.

"Maybe I'll have some soon," said the girl.

Dorcas and I looked at each other.

"Can I please have the gravy?" Dorcas asked again. "You don't appear to be using it, and I can give it back right away when I'm done."

"No," said the girl shortly. "I might want some. Any time now."

Dorcas narrowed her eyes. Nothing keeps that girl from her gravy. "Right," she said. "That's it." Dorcas leaned over the table and picked up the gravy jug. She poured it all over the girl's dinner and then poured some on her own. She placed the jug back down in front of the girl. "Thank you," she said.

The girl looked like she was about to explode. "How dare you!" she yelled. She picked up the gravy jug and flung it at Dorcas.

Gravy went all over her robes and in her hair.

"You got gravy in my hair," said Dorcas slowly, making sure that the girl heard her every word.

"Nobody puts gravy on my food. I didn't want any," said the girl.

Dorcas began to hyperventilate. "Nobody," she said, breathing heavily between each word.

God, I make her sound like an animal or something.

"Nobody puts gravy in Dorcas Meadowes' hair," she said. She picked up the bowl of beans and flicked them at the girl.

"FOOD FIGHT!" yelled Sirius Black.

"NO!" yelled Professor McGonagall from her seat up on the staff table. "DON'T LISTEN TO HIM –"

But she was drowned out by sudden screams and yells from all of Hogwarts.

"YOU LITTLE SON OF A –" screeched Rebecca Windle from beside me. Her face was contorted in anger. "Throw mashed potato at me, why don't you!" She ran after a rather frightened first-year Hufflepuff.

"Hey!" yelled Georgie Sparrow. "What are you doing? I WAS EATING THAT!"

Sirius had already picked up the plate and thrown it right into Jacob Proberts' face.

The plate slid off, and Jacob wiped pumpkin out of his eyes. "It's war," he said.

Someone began to sing the opening part of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song. Very well, I might add.

Further up Gryffindor's table, there was more yelling.

"Give me that! I'll spit peas at you!" cried Victoria Soberg. When her plate wasn't returned, she proceeded to spit peas at the offender.

"STUDENTS!" roared Professor McGonagall. But nobody was listening to any of the teachers.

"Excuse me, I do believe that is my plate," said a Slytherin, standing behind me and beginning to lift my plate up.

"Then why is it in front of me?" I said.

He narrowed his eyes and flipped the plate up. It hit me square in the face. He laughed at me.

I can't even begin to describe the anger that ran through me.

"YOU'RE IN FOR IT NOW!" I screamed. I leapt up from my seat and scooped a handful of gravy off Dorcas' robes. I hurled it at him, hitting him in the face.

Someone threw something else at Dorcas, so she ran off into the food covered war zone.

Chuck Bare came leaping over the table then, with what I think was some kind of American Indian call. He had sweet potato smeared on his face like war paint and tackled the Slytherin who had attacked me to the ground.

I pushed through the people, sticking mashed potato in the faces of people who got in my way.

"Dorcas!" I called when I spotted her gravy-covered blonde hair. "We've got to get out of here! This is getting ridiculous!"

Dorcas spun round and threw mushed-up peas in my face.

"Thanks," I said, wiping it off my cheek.

"Sorry," she said. "But we can't leave! I have to find that – HEY! YOU! GET OVER HERE! I DON'T THINK THOSE BEANS WERE ENOUGH FOR YOU!"

I shook my head and turned around. I was hit in the face with a piece of meat.

Well, that was new.

"Gross!" I said, pulling it off and throwing it into someone else's face.

James Potter stood in front of me, looking extremely worried. "Uh, sorry about that Evans," he said with a nervous smile.

I narrowed my eyes. "You will be." I grabbed a bowl of mashed potato off the table and began to lob the stuff at him.

"Don't hurt Prongs!" came a sudden yell, and Sirius tackled me to the ground.

"Hey! Get off me!" I stuck the bowl onto his head.

"You just put mashed potato on the hair," he said, anger in his voice.

"Now you've got a bowl cut," I said roguishly. I shoved him off and ran like hell.

"**STUDENTS**!" bellowed Professor Dumbledore.

Everyone suddenly stopped. I looked around. Nearly everybody was in the middle of some kind of fight with another person, and everyone had a little bit of mashed potato on them. Along with all the other vegetables that were being served that night.

I hate to think of how I looked.

"Enough of this immaturity!" I noticed that even Dumbledore had gotten into the fight somehow. He had pumpkin in his hair and beard.

Or maybe that was from him eating.

"Every single one of you; TO BED!"

With a lot of red faces, we all scurried from the Great Hall and headed towards our respective dormitories.

Needless to say, there was a bit of a shower clog that night.

**.x.x.x.**

_**Disclaimer:**__** I can't write phenomena like J. K. Rowling. (Nor can I say them.) So obviously, anything you think belongs to her, does. I just like sticking the characters in awkward situations.**_

**Well, this one took a while! Wow, that food fight really took a lot of energy to type. Has anyone else had those times when there's a part and you just have to type it as fast as it's happening? Yeah, that's what it was like.**

**Anyway, I hoped you liked this, and found it just that little bit funny. :D**

**Reviews would be lovely!**


	10. Tinsel Tsunami

Early on Friday morning, I woke up. But when I tried to yawn and stretch I found myself rather unable to breathe properly or move.

"HEY!" screamed Emmeline from her bed beside me. "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?"

As I pushed away what was threatening to suffocate me, I realized that it was tinsel. I could hear Emmeline thrash her way out of her pile of tinsel.

I figured that I would swim upwards through the stuff. Pushing it away with a smooth freestyle, I emerged above it all. Emmeline came up too; her brown hair in knots and a furious look on her face.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked angrily.

Our whole dormitory had been turned into a swimming pool of tinsel. I hoped that Kelly Tinkle was up earlier than us, 'cause if she wasn't, we were gonna be in big trouble.

"Morning!" called Dorcas from the direction of the bathroom.

I kicked furiously through the itchy decorations and found Dorcas paddling comfortably outside the bathroom.

Emmeline came over too, her eyes narrowed. "Dorcas…" she began slowly, "why on earth is our dormitory a pool of tinsel?"

"Oh that," said Dorcas, as if she had just noticed that we were treading tinsel. "I figured we could use some more tinsel, so I Summoned some from the closest place I could find."

This couldn't be good. "And, uh, where might that be?" I asked.

"That great big Christmas tree in that Muggle village two towns over."

Emmeline and I slapped our foreheads at the same time.

"What in the name of –" began Emmeline, but she was drowned out by a voice from downstairs.

"DORCAS MEADOWES!" screeched Professor McGonagall from the common room. "COME DOWN HERE THIS MINUTE, YOUNG LADY!"

"You're in for it now," said Emmeline smugly, glad Dorcas was getting her comeuppance.

We swam over to the door and slid down the stairs on the tsunami of tinsel that came with us. We landed at the foot of the stairs with most of Gryffindor, who had been woken up by Professor McGonagall, staring at us.

"Hi," said Dorcas with a cheerful wave of her hand.

Professor McGonagall looked murderous. "What is the meaning of this, Miss Meadowes?" she asked. I could see that she was waiting for Dorcas' excuse before she exploded.

"Well, I figured that we could use a bit more festivity around the place," said Dorcas. "And what says Christmas better than tinsel?"

Professor McGonagall's eyes narrowed.

"Plus, the leftover stuff would be great for our party."

"Oh God," muttered Emmeline beside me. "She had to mention it, didn't she?"

"Miss Meadowes, you've done a lot of crazy things over the years –" said Professor McGonagall.

I didn't hear what she said after that because I suddenly got a flood of flashbacks.

_(Flashback)_

_First Year_

"_Who let their cat go out the train window?"_

"_She told me she wanted to learn how to fly! But have you got her, Professor? She didn't come back, that's all."_

"_Would you really like to know what happened to her?"_

"_Oh yes."_

"_We found her twisted around the axle of the train's wheels."_

"_NOOO!!"_

_Second Year_

"_Someone, I don't know who, has put sneezing powder into the breakfasts this morning. (sneeze) If you (sneeze) own up now, your punishment (sneeze) won't be as bad."_

"_Um, it was me, Professor."_

"_Why on EARTH did you (sneeze) do such a thing?"_

"_Well, I kinda wanted to see everyone sneeze at the same time."_

"_(sneeze) What?"_

_Third Year_

"_Who scared the Fat Lady out of her portrait?"_

"_It was me."_

"_Miss Meadowes. How did you manage to do such a thing?"_

"_Well, she told me that she wasn't scared of anything, so I pulled my scariest face and then she just ran."_

"_And what is this 'scariest face'?"_

_(screams)_

"_Dear God, stop! Stop Dorcas! Your parents should be ashamed!"_

_Fourth Year_

"_Who put an Itching Spell on every sweet in Honeydukes?"_

"_That was me."_

"_Why?"_

"_I like seeing people struggle to scratch something that's inside them."_

_Fifth Year_

"_Who gave Professor Flitwick a giant teddy bear for Christmas? Oh wait, was it Dorcas Meadowes, by any chance?"_

"_Yeah, that was me."_

"_Why?"_

"_He could use a big friend."_

"_It was twenty times his size!"_

"_Hehe, yeah."_

"_And what made you bring it to life?"_

"_Well, it's no good giving him a friend if he can't even do anything with it."_

"_It ate him."_

"_There's that problem."_

_Sixth Year_

"_Who put a curse on all the Quidditch balls so that when someone touched them they would get dragon pox?"_

"_You have to admit, Professor, it was a good spell."_

"_I'm not admitting anything! You've put both the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor teams into the Hospital Wing!"_

"_At least we're rid of James Potter for a while."_

_(End Flashback)_

" – So you are getting a week's worth of detention starting next week."

"Okay Professor. Won't do anything like this again, Professor."

"You say that every time," said Professor McGonagall tiredly.

"Well, I can't do anything for a bit now, can I? We've got the NEWTs and I've almost finished school."

"Just get this tinsel out of my sight," said Professor McGonagall, before she left the common room.

Emmeline, Dorcas and I sent the whole lot of tinsel down into the empty classroom where our party was going to be held. Then we headed down into the Great Hall for breakfast.

**.x.x.x.**

"Partners for this next potion please!" boomed Professor Slughorn gazing around the dungeon. "I'll choose. Vance, with Pettigrew. Meadowes, Lupin. Evans, Potter. Elveria, Fratney. Richardson, Michaels. Um, Langton with –"

I'd stopped listening after I heard the words 'Evans' and 'Potter' put together. Emmeline and Dorcas had already given me their grimaces as they set off to be with their partners, while I remained in my seat in a state of shock.

"Hiya Evans!" said James, jumping into the vacant seat beside me with way too much energy for first class. "How has your morning been? I heard that Meadowes got busted for having tinsel; what's up with that? And hey, have you –"

"Shut up for a minute, would you?" I said, squeezing my eyes tightly shut and trying to work out what my brain was trying to tell me.

James.

Sitting next to me.

And, um, didn't we have that date last night?

I snapped my eyes open. "Oh my God, James, I was supposed to –"

I looked him in the eyes and saw the minute sadness there. He nodded slightly.

"Sorry. I'm so sorry, I just, well, Dorcas was being the git she always is; she wanted to give her teddy a bath and it took ages to wring the damn thing out 'cause she refused to use magic to dry it, after what happened to her last bear. And, well…" James was shaking his head and laughing. "What?"

"It's okay, Lily. We'll meet tonight. Alright?"

I smiled. "Okay."

Professor Slughorn came around to our desk then. "Miss Evans…? You haven't even got your cauldron out yet!"

I looked down at the blank desk. "Oh, right, Professor." I got up and hurriedly got out all the ingredients we needed. I told James to chop up everything while I did the mixing.

We worked pretty well together.

I spent the rest of the day thinking about our date/meeting tonight. Emmeline had to keep repeating herself to me in Muggle Studies.

"Lily! Are you even with us?!"

I blinked and shook my head. "Oh, wha – Yeah, I'm here, aren't I?"

Emmeline shook her head at me. "I said, what is up with you today? You didn't even laugh at my joke."

"It wasn't funny, that's why," remarked Dorcas from behind us.

"Yes it was, it was about that hag and the dog and the dog –"

"Stop her," said Dorcas, feigning impending death. "Stop her before it's too late."

"I've heard that one," I said, even though I haven't. I know that if Dorcas doesn't laugh, it can't be funny at all, 'cause she'll laugh at the lamest of jokes.

Emmeline looked dejected. "You still haven't answered my question. What is up with you?"

"She's thinking about her impending date with James," said Dorcas.

I looked at her with an open mouth. "How did you know?"

"I can lip read," she answered smugly.

"Really?" asked Emmeline.

"Yeah. It's a great skill to have. I learnt it to find out what my mother said to relatives when we met up with them."

"And what does she say about you?" I asked.

"Crap about how I do so well in school and 'Isn't her hair just gorgeous?' Lame stuff, really. Well, not the hair bit." Dorcas fluffed up her hair. "It's nice when people compliment me."

Emmeline and I rolled our eyes.

**.x.x.x.**

I was in the common room at nine sharp. Not many other people were there. Must be Early Bedtime Day or something.

I sat down in an armchair and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It was now eleven o'clock and James still hadn't turned up. I headed upstairs with severe disappointment.

"Lily?" said Dorcas when I walked into the dormitory.

"Night," I said shortly, climbing into bed, even though I was still fully dressed, and pulling the hangings around me. Then I put my face in my pillow and cried.

**.x.x.x.**

_**Disclaimer:**__** Any characters that you think resemble something out of Harry Potter, that's probably 'cause they do. They're not mine.**_

**Eleven sleeps til Christmas!**


	11. Cooking with James' Father's Pig

My eyes snapped open. Darkness pressed on my eyeballs. I drew breath and then I … shrieked. I shrieked blue murder.

"Lily! Lily!" Dorcas rushed over to me. "What the hell is the matter with you?" I could see her eye mask hanging around her neck in the dim light coming through the window.

I bolted upright and glanced at my bedside clock. "It's one a.m.! We've still got time!"

Dorcas looked really confused. "Time for what, Lily?"

Emmeline rolled over. "Shut up and go back to sleep," she said drowsily.

"Emmeline!" I jumped out of my bed and pushed her out of hers.

"Ouch!" she cried as she hit the floor. "What the –"

"Lily, you didn't answer my question." Dorcas was watching me run around our dormitory, a worried expression on her face that I could just make out in the dark. "Time for what?"

"The party! The party!" I cried, grabbing my robes and tugging them over my head.

Emmeline sat up beside her bed. I could just see her head over the top of the mattress. She rubbed her arm. "Lily, the party isn't until seven or whatever tonight," she said, pulling herself back up onto the mattress. "It's only – HOLY –"

"My point exactly," I said, neatly cutting off Emmeline from saying any more swear words.

"WE HAVEN'T FINISHED –"

"Shush!" said Dorcas urgently, putting a finger to her mouth. She pointed over at Kelly, who was still sound asleep, despite Emmeline's loud voice and my loudish voice.

"We," began Emmeline again, this time much quieter, "still haven't quite finished decorating the classroom, have we?"

"No!" I said. "And Dorcas sent down all that tinsel yesterday!"

"Crap," said Emmeline. She leapt off her bed and pulled out her robes.

Dorcas looked slightly miffed, but then she took off her eye mask, and grabbed some robes.

We were ready in five minutes and we hurried down the spiral staircase as quietly as we could.

We were about to go out the portrait hole when I suddenly stopped.

Emmeline and Dorcas ran up the back of me.

"Lily, what the f –"

"Emmeline, really, get a swear jar," said Dorcas, jabbing Emmeline in the stomach at just the right time. "What's the matter, Lily?"

"It's one a.m.," I said slowly.

"Yeah," said Dorcas, as if I'd just announced that monkeys are called monkeys. "Thanks for that Lily. I sure couldn't read the time."

"No, I mean, if we set foot outside this portrait hole, we're breaking curfew," I said.

Dorcas and Emmeline looked unconcerned.

"Um, so?" asked Emmeline.

I looked at them, surprised. "What? Are you trying to tell me that you've both broken curfew?"

"They call them midnight snacks, Lily," said Dorcas, as though stating the obvious. Emmeline nodded in agreement.

I shook my head and tore my eyes away from them. And I bet you thought I made friends with good, law-abiding people, right?

I'm just as shocked as you are.

"Right," I said, with another shake of my head. I scrambled into the portrait hole and out into the seventh floor corridor. Dorcas and Emmeline followed me. They started to walk off down the hall, but they stopped when they realized I wasn't with them.

"Lily?" asked Dorcas. "Are you alright?"

I blinked. Then my face turned into one giant grin. "I'm breaking curfew," I said, astonishment in my voice. I grinned wider. "I'm breaking curfew!" I said, louder this time.

"And you're gonna get us caught if you don't shut up," said Emmeline, grabbing my arm and leading me down the corridor.

I couldn't stop grinning. So this is why people get into trouble. For the adrenaline rush. I could now see why James was so bouncy all the time. He must get hundreds of these everyday.

We hurried through the dark castle and finally reached the party classroom after Dorcas had run into three suits of armour and offended six portraits.

Emmeline unlocked the door.

A muted _whoosh_ accompanied the creak of the door opened as all the tinsel spilled out.

"Smooth," said Dorcas, as the tinsel wave gathered us up and hit us against the wall on the other side of the hallway.

Emmeline gave her a look.

We all pulled out our wands and began pushing the tinsel back into the room.

Dorcas got into the room first and began to stick up her end whilst Emmeline and I fought the other.

By four a.m., the room was fully decorated and sparkling.

Emmeline wiped her forehead with her sleeve. "Thank goodness that's done," she said.

Dorcas looked ecstatic. "Guess what we get to do now!" she said excitedly. She bounced on the spot.

"Dorcas, it's four in the morning. How could you possibly have so much energy?" asked Emmeline tiredly.

"I don't know," said Dorcas, bouncing around us in a circle now. "But why isn't anyone guessing?!"

"Because you're making us dizzy," I said, rubbing my eyes.

"Guess! Guess!"

"We don't know, Dorcas," said Emmeline, sitting down on one of the plush chairs we'd set out for the party. "Tell us."

Dorcas was bouncing almost a metre into the air now. "It's cooking time!"

"Oh Merlin," was all Emmeline said, as she put her head in her hands.

**.x.x.x.**

"Uh, hi," said Dorcas rather awkwardly as we faced the hundreds of house-elves who worked in Hogwarts kitchens. "We, uh, kinda need to borrow this place for the next –" Dorcas looked at Emmeline critically. "Let's say, two to three hours?"

Emmeline scowled.

The house-elves smiled at us, bowed and curtsied, then took off for the portrait door.

Soon, it was just us in the kitchen.

Emmeline looked extremely apprehensive about this whole thing. "Now, um, Dorcas, see –"

"Nah-uh!" cried Dorcas, pointing a finger at Emmeline. "It's your own fault that we're here, so put up with it! You're the one who fought so hard to cook this ourselves; we could have used the house-elves but you refused, because of your pride! So this is your own fault!"

Emmeline looked rather shocked at Dorcas' speech. "Right," she said finally. "Let's get started. Who's up for a bit of toast first?"

Half an hour later, Dorcas and I were happily munching on our seventh pieces of toast that we had made ourselves, whilst Emmeline was still struggling to make her first.

Her eyebrows were singed, and so was the hair that fell over her face. Her face had a far bit of soot on it, as well as some burnt toast crumbs.

After she had dropped her eighteenth piece of toast into the fireplace, I lost my patience and grabbed some bread.

"This is how you do it Emmeline!" I said, exasperated. I neatly turned the toast at all the right times, ending up with a perfectly made piece of toast.

Emmeline sniffed. "Muggleborns… Can do anything… it's just not fair…"

I smiled and passed her the toast. She ate it rather dismally.

"Shush!" cried Dorcas suddenly. "I can hear voices."

We fell silent. There were people talking outside.

"I'm telling you Prongs, there was a house-elf back there!"

"And I'm telling you, Padfoot, that they're not around at this time of the morning, 'cause they know that some students are up!"

"I think I saw one too, Prongs."

"Oh, everybody jump on the mental patient bandwagon, why don't you! Sheesh, Moony, I thought you had more sense."

"I do have sense. And my sense tells me that I saw a house-elf."

"See? See? I can't be crazy!"

"Why don't you convince me some more, Padfoot."

We then heard the pear giggle and the portrait swung open. James had his back to us, but Sirius and Remus were looking at us with open mouths.

"See?" said James triumphantly. "The house-elves are all –" He turned around to face us. "Here? What the – Evans?"

I gave him a wave. Dorcas and Emmeline did the same.

"Aloha," said Dorcas.

"Where are all the house-elves?" he asked.

Sirius began bouncing up and down; much like Dorcas had been doing before. "See? See? I told you! But no! You never believe me!"

Emmeline had gone bright red under all her soot. I followed her gaze and she was staring right at Remus, who looked a bit pale.

I myself was feeling pretty embarrassed. Maybe James stood me up because I stood him up.

Oh… I couldn't bear the thought.

And now he was walking over to me.

Great. An absolutely smashing start to my day.

Even though my day had actually started four hours ago.

Damn my brain and its problems with not knowing what time of the freaking day it is…

"Hey Evans," said James, sitting beside me at the small table that was in the kitchens.

"Hi." My voice was just that tiniest bit squeaky.

"Um, about last night …"

"No, you don't even have to explain," I said, saving him from explaining. "I know why you stood me up. It's 'cause I stood you up. Well, I'm sorry James, I didn't mean to, I told you, it was Dorcas' bear, damn it, if I'd remembered, I would have come down, I know I would, but you didn't have to get me back because there were circumstances that I couldn't possibly control –"

"Lily, shut up for a minute," said James.

I shut my open mouth quickly.

"I … forgot about something that I had to do. I didn't mean for it to seem like I'd gotten you back or whatever. Sorry."

I blinked. "What did you forget?"

"Nothing. It doesn't matter."

My mind was racing. James picked up a bit of toast from Dorcas' plate and began to eat it. I watched him, trying to think of what he would have had to do.

Patrols, no, we didn't have those last night, I'm sure of it; another party, we'd know about it; what could it …

Oh.

OH.

"James." I lowered my voice and looked at him. "Is it about Remus?"

James almost choked on the piece of toast that he was chewing. He coughed quite a bit before he swallowed it. "What?" he gasped.

I smiled gently. "Is it about Remus?" I asked again, this time more slowly.

"How – What the –"

"It was full moon last night, wasn't it?"

James had gone to take another bite of toast, but he ended up choking on that too. He swallowed loudly. "How could you possibly know?"

"Oh please," I said. "It's just that little bit obvious. He's off visiting his 'sick mother' every month, and always around the time of the full moon. And there's that little problem of the fact that I saw his mother in the holidays at Diagon Alley and she looked perfectly healthy."

"She has her good days and her –" I gave James a look. "Oh, alright, yeah, it was Remus, we had to go and –" James stopped suddenly. "I'm not saying anything else." He took a huge bite of toast to illustrate the point that he wasn't talking.

I was immediately curious. "Why would you go with him? He's a –"

James gave me a very severe look. He could have given Professor McGonagall a run for her money.

"He's a werewolf," I said in a voice that was above a whisper. I raised my voice to continue, "So why on earth are you going with him? He'd eat you alive! Or… turn you into one."

James continued to chew his toast, his mouth twisting as though he himself was fighting a battle with his brain.

I do that a lot, so I know the signs.

"James…" I prompted.

"I can't tell you," he said finally, after he'd swallowed his toast. "It's a Marauder secret."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine."

"I still can't believe you Summoned all that tinsel!" Sirius was saying across the room. "It was in all the Muggle papers and in the Daily Prophet!"

Dorcas looked smug. "Well, I just have a gift I guess."

"But your spell must have been really strong!" said Sirius. "The place was two towns over and all that tinsel would have weighed a bit."

Dorcas looked very proud at all the attention that she was getting from Sirius. "Not really."

Sirius was wearing an expression of awe. "You're fantastic."

Dorcas blushed deeply. "Thanks."

Meanwhile, Emmeline was trying her best to hide. After realizing that she doesn't fit behind a saucepan, she announced loudly, "Look, this has been nice, but we've really got to start cooking for our party. It's five in the morning already."

"Hey, your party's tonight isn't it?" asked Sirius.

James rubbed his hands together. "Cool. Well, since we're not wanted here, let's go boys."

"No!" I said suddenly.

Everyone turned and looked at me. I felt my face redden slightly.

"What was that, Evans?" asked James.

Why does he keep changing what he calls me? Maybe he wants to hide our newfound closeness from everyone else.

Jerk.

"Because …" Even though I had just called him a jerk, I did want them to stay. "We need help with cooking everything."

"No we don't!" yelled Emmeline.

"Ignore her," said Dorcas. "She's just a little stuck-up pure-blood."

"What are you saying?" said James and Sirius, rounding on her.

"Nothing," said Dorcas quickly. "I just mean, she's never even cooked a piece of toast for Merlin's sake."

Emmeline looked ready to explode. I wonder why … Oh, maybe it's because Dorcas is making a fool of her in front of her crush? You think?

"I can so!" Emmeline cried.

"Only after I did it for you," I said. I turned back to James, Sirius and Remus. "So, are you gonna stay and help?"

James and Sirius exchanged glances.

"Yeah, alright," said James after a pause. "But don't expect Sirius to do much. His cooking skills aren't that great either."

"What? Who made you and your parents breakfast during the holidays?" said Sirius heatedly.

"Annie the house-elf," said James, rolling back the sleeves of his pyjamas and grabbing saucepans and things out of the cupboards.

"No, I mean on the …" Sirius counted on his fingers. "Eighteenth day of the holidays."

"I don't bloody well know! What the hell do you think I do, count the freaking days of the – Oh. You mean the day you cooked."

"Yes, I mean the day I cooked," said Sirius in a mocking tone. "What other ruddy day do you think I referred to?"

"I dunno, maybe that day when –"

"Oh, would you get on with it?" said Dorcas impatiently. "I just want to hear the damn story."

Sirius and James looked at her, surprised. She tapped her foot with annoyance.

"It was a blissful Sunday," began Sirius, with the air of a storyteller. "And James and his mother and father were just waking up to the beautiful morning."

_(Story Time!)_

"_Good morning mother, good morning father," said James, walking into his parents' bedroom._

"I don't say it like that!"

"Pffh. You so do."

_Anyway. _

"_Guess what, mother dear? That wonderful, handsome, too hot to be real boy, Sirius Black is making us breakfast this morning!"_

"Full of yourself, much?" I muttered. Sirius gave me a glare.

"_Oh hurrah!" cried Mrs Potter, joy evident in her voice. "I simply cannot wait to devour what beautiful feast that gorgeous young man has made for us!"_

"Okay, stop right there, Padfoot," said James, holding up his hand in a stop motion. "My mother does not say stuff like that. I think I should tell the story. From the beginning again."

Dorcas and Emmeline sighed. I rolled my eyes.

_It was another boring Sunday. My parents and I had woken up early. Sirius wasn't in his bed. I found a note that he had left on it. 'I'm making breakfast! See you soon!' _

_I walked into my parents' bedroom. "Morning mum, dad. Um, mum?"_

"_Yes, James, dear?"_

"She doesn't call you James!" said Sirius. "She calls you her 'little Jamesie-poo'!"

James gave Sirius a sharp look.

"_Sirius, that fool, has decided to make breakfast this morning."_

"_Oh dear."_

_James' father had retreated to under the bed out of pure fear of Sirius' cooking._

"He did not!" said Sirius.

"I think I would know," said James. "I was kinda there and not downstairs, burning the whole damn house down."

"Is this story gonna get anywhere fast?" Emmeline asked. "It is almost half past five."

"Yeah, yeah," said James, continuing his story.

_Soon, Sirius walked up the stairs, carrying a plate covered with a dish. His face was blackened …_

"A bit like yours, Vance," added James.

Emmeline gave him a death stare.

…_and he looked very pleased with himself._

"_I present," he announced, "bacon and eggs, á la Sirius."_

"_Dear Merlin," muttered James' father._

_Sirius lifted the dish cover to reveal –_

"A beautifully made meal of bacon and eggs," interrupted Sirius quickly. "Now, can we get cooking?"

"No, I want to hear the rest of the story," said Dorcas.

"Oh no you don't," said Sirius.

"_AAAH!" screamed James' mother._

"_Is that my prize pig?" asked James' father._

"_That's not bacon; you've stuffed the whole freaking pig in an oven and then just burnt the damn thing!"_

"_Percy… My Percy…"_

"_Look, you've even made dad cry!"_

"_Well, it's not my fault! He walked right up to the back door and so I thought that meant it's cooking time!"_

"_That means it's feeding time, you idiot!"_

_And then everyone began to strangle him._

_(End of Story Time.)_

"And so let us leave this heart-warming scene and remember to never ever let Sirius near any kind of pig. Ever." James concluded his story and bowed.

Emmeline, Dorcas and I clapped happily.

"Thank goodness I have a pet goat!" sighed Dorcas.

"You do?" asked Sirius. "You know, you can milk from them, and make cheese out of that milk…"

"Note to self," said Dorcas, "never let Sirius near Gnu."

"Hang on," said Emmeline. "Isn't a gnu a type of wildebeest?"

"Yeah," said Dorcas dismissively, "but it's near the word 'goat' in the dictionary."

Emmeline and I exchanged glances.

"Well," said James, who now had a make-shift chef's hat on his head. "Are we gonna start cooking or what?"

**.x.x.x.**

After twenty explosions, sixteen cases of singed eyebrows, four cases of curdled milk, and eighty-two cases of '"The water's not boiling." "I'll fix that for you." "Oh no, Sirius, it's fine. I think I –" "_Incendio_!" "MERLIN! MY ROBES/PYJAMAS/HAIR/FACE IS ON FIRE!"', we had finally finished cooking just about everything.

"Thank goodness that's over," said Sirius, collapsing into the small chair and putting his face on the table.

Emmeline looked up at the clock. "And just in time, too." She yawned. "Seven o'clock is not my time of day."

We all agreed, and headed out the portrait door.

The house-elves were waiting outside.

"Done, misses and masters?" one asked us.

"Yeah," I answered. "Don't touch any of that food we made, mind."

"Of course," it replied, bowing low. "Let's go!" They all scrambled in and slammed the portrait shut behind them.

"Thank you!" yelled Sirius rather sarcastically to the picture of the fruit.

"Breakfast, then?" asked James, rubbing his hands together. We all nodded at him and headed for the Great Hall.

We separated at we reached it, heading for our own areas of Gryffindor table.

"I'm exhausted," said Dorcas, going to put her face down on the table, but then realizing that there was a plate of scrambled eggs in front of her.

"We all are, Dorcas," said Emmeline, lifting up a forkful of scrambled eggs again and again.

"Are you gonna eat that or what?" asked a girl across from us in a frustrated voice. "Merlin, you just keep lifting it up, and then you put it back down, then you lift it up again, and then you –"

"Yes, we get the idea," said Emmeline. "But what's your point? I can do what I like with my food."

"Well, don't do it in front of me. It's annoying."

Emmeline opened her mouth to retaliate, but both Dorcas and I hushed her.

"Don't start with her," warned Dorcas. "You weren't here when the gravy thing began."

"Gravy thing?" repeated Emmeline, confused.

"You don't wanna know," said Dorcas with a mournful shake of her head.

**.x.x.x.**

After a nice little nap, we woke up at four o'clock, three hours to the party.

"Aah," said Dorcas, with a yawn and a stretch. "Now that was refreshing."

"Do you guys wanna check if the food's okay?" I asked, whilst I looked in my wardrobe for some kind of outfit.

"No," said Dorcas and Emmeline in unison.

I looked at them, slightly shocked. "Why? What's up with you two?"

"Hello?" said Emmeline.

"Uh, hi?" I said.

"Party outfits, Lily! Where have you been the past week?" cried Dorcas in frustration.

"Um, here?"

"Lily!" cried Emmeline like some kind of psycho-crazy fashion person. "We simply must get you into an outfit! What do you have in your cupboard?"

"Um…" But Emmeline didn't hang around to listen. She threw open the doors with flair and began tossing out things.

"Junk, junk, crap, junk, ooh la la, I'll have that…"

"Hey!" I yelled, snatching my favourite green dress back from her. "That's my best dress."

Emmeline and Dorcas exchanged glances, and looked back into my cupboard. "That's for sure," said Emmeline.

I threw them both a look before flouncing off into the bathroom.

Half an hour later, I walked out, fully dressed in my dress, and my hair done nicely. Dorcas immediately snatched me from the doorway, pushed Emmeline into the bathroom, and sat me down at her beauty table.

"Make-up time!" she cried, pulling out her three vanity cases.

Two hours later after we'd started; it was six o'clock, if you can't do the math. I know, it's tricky, hey?

Anyway, it was six o'clock and the three of us looked very fine. I mean, if Dorcas hadn't put on those silly little flashing Santa earrings, the three of us would have looked ready for a ball.

"Maybe we should go check on the food now," I said, nudging Dorcas.

"Right, yeah, maybe we should," agreed Dorcas. I sighed happily. Someone agreed!

We headed down through the common room, which was empty, weirdly enough, out of the portrait hole, through the really, really quiet castle and down to the kitchens.

Emmeline tickled the pear, since she was the only one who was able to reach up that high in her dress, and the portrait swung open to reveal all of the house-elves lying together in one big pile. They were all on their backs and holding their stomachs.

"What the hell happened here?" said Emmeline, taking a step in and looking around.

"Oh no," I said slowly, taking a step in myself and looking around. "Oh dear Merlin, no."

"What?" asked Dorcas.

"The food," I said, my voice cracking. "They ate all the food."

**.x.x.x.**

_**Disclaimer: **__**Harry Potter and anything that comes from Harry Potter is not my property. I might own just about every single piece of merchandise that has Harry Potter's name on it, but that still doesn't let me own it. Damn it.**_

**Hi there! Haven't had one of these in a little while. Just thought I'd let you all know that this is the penultimate chapter. The next chapter, which involves telling you the outcome of this cliff-hanger (had to do it!) and the party itself. I hope to hear (in your reviews) that you're all gonna be there:D **

**But thank you to you all, for coming this far with me, with an idea I thought wasn't gonna work out, some scenes I thought were so random, only I would understand (and I didn't even understand sometimes), and generally, this whole damn story. Thanks for all your support. You've all made my year. Not just my day, my year. Thanks.**


	12. One War, One Egg Shell, and One Ending

"No, no," I muttered, taking another step over an unconscious house-elf. "No, this isn't happening."

"I think it is Lily," said Emmeline.

I rounded on her. "Not helping!"

"Look, just calm down a minute Lily," said Dorcas, attempting to sound reassuring. "We can just cook it all again."

"No we bloody well can't!" I cried. "It's an hour to the party and we don't have any food!"

"It'll be alright," said Dorcas, trying to put her arm around me.

I pushed her away and sat down on the ground. "This is horrible. So utterly, utterly horrible. Nothing has gone right since we started this."

Dorcas sat beside me. "Yeah it has. I mean, we started a food fight, didn't we?"

I smiled weakly. "Yeah, I guess."

"And if we can start a food fight, then we can make the food to go with it, right?"

"Dorcas, that's impossible and you know it," said Emmeline.

"Oh shut up, party pooper," said Dorcas. She helped me back up onto my feet.

"So what are we gonna do?" I asked, looking around at all the house-elves.

"We're gonna bring these things back to life, that's what!" cried Dorcas. "Come on, we've got to get these guys back on their feet!" Dorcas leaned down and pulled up the house-elf beside her. "Oh get up you drunk," she said, heaving it onto its feet.

The house-elf swayed on its feet. It tipped backwards and hit its head on the table behind it.

"Oh crap," muttered Emmeline as a large bowl of lollies teetered off the edge of the table and fell onto the face of a house-elf lying on the ground.

The house-elf that the lollies had fallen upon leapt up in fright and ran into another house-elf who was attempting to get back on his own two feet. This caused him to all of a sudden slap another house-elf who Dorcas had pulled up, which caused absolute uproar.

"Did you just slap Fuzzy?" one house-elf cried indignantly.

"I might've," replied the one who had slapped Fuzzy, swaying slightly.

"That's it! I am so sick of you slapping her all the time!" The indignant house-elf pushed back the sleeves of its dirty tea cosy. Other house-elves shouted in agreement.

"Dear Merlin," said Emmeline beside me, her hands clasped together and eyes closed. "Please do not allow a full-scale house-elf war break out."

"In your face, Ponny!" cried the indignant house-elf, aiming a high karate kick at Ponny's face.

"Stop, stop!" cried Dorcas, as the house-elves split into two sides and began scratching at each other's faces.

"STOP!" yelled Emmeline. The house-elves ceased attacking each other and turned to see who had yelled so loudly.

"This is ridiculous!" cried Emmeline. "Stop fighting! We need you all to make us food! Quickly! We have a party on in like twenty minutes! We need food now!"

The house-elves looked at each other.

"Miss is right," said Ponny. "We shouldn't be fighting; we should be making food for other misses and masters and making them happy."

The other house-elves murmured in agreement. Ponny shook hands with the indignant house-elf.

"Now let's cook!" he cried, and the house-elves moved like the wind.

"Okay guys," said Dorcas loudly, taking acting like the leader of her own army, "we need desserts by the hundreds for our Christmas party. Puddings, biscuits, anything and everything!"

The house-elves nodded as they rushed around, baking and cooking and doing everything we had been doing before, but much better.

Within five minutes, we had twice as much food as we had managed to cook earlier.

"This is brilliant," said Dorcas, looking around at them all in wonder.

I turned to Emmeline. "This is the last time I listen to you about anything," I said.

Emmeline hmphed at me.

By ten to seven, all the food was done. Emmeline looked slightly calmer, and a little giddy. I had a feeling she had found some Firewhiskey somewhere in the kitchens.

We put it all onto half a cart that one of the house elves had _attempted _to conjure, and Dorcas, Emmeline and I made our way out of the kitchens, headed for the party classroom.

Dorcas, meanwhile, tried to shake a particularly rambunctious house elf from her leg where he had taken residence.

"Please!" it was crying. "Take me to the party! Get me out of there!"

"NO!" cried Dorcas, kicking it off and straight back into the kitchen. She slammed the portrait shut and dusted off her hands. "What?" she said when she saw Emmeline and I staring at her.

"Nothing," Emmeline and I said in unison.

We wheeled the half-cart with some difficulty towards the classroom. After the cake had fallen off twice, and both times with very close catches by Dorcas, Emmeline decided to stick everything to the top of the cart with a Sticking Charm.

We got some extremely odd looks as we walked, especially from the first-years.

"It's as if they've never seen three girls in dresses before," remarked Dorcas, giving the finger to one wide-eyed first-year.

"Dorcas!" I said when I saw her give the finger to a second-year.

"What?" she said innocently, giving another one the finger behind her back.

I gave her a look and she grinned.

We reached the classroom and conjured some tablecloths for the desks. We put a few in a line, so it looked like we had a nice long buffet table.

"I just wanna check my hair before we get that stuff off the cart," said Dorcas, Summoning her small mirror from our dormitory. She flipped it open and yelped.

"What?" asked Emmeline, who had been examining our half-cart with some interest.

"I now know why those little midgets were giving us funny looks!" cried Dorcas. "Look at our hair!"

I looked at Dorcas' hair, which I hadn't done earlier, surprisingly, and she was right.

Dorcas' hair was a tangle of blonde knots, with bits of biscuits crumbs mixed throughout. She handed me her mirror and I saw my own hair. I had ice-cream melting in the middle and mine was a frizzy ball of red curls.

"What the hell happened?" asked Emmeline, looking at hers, which was shaped like a birds' nest, complete with egg shells in the middle.

"I dunno," said Dorcas, who was now Summoning her whole hair kit from our dormitory. "But we have to fix it right now." She yanked the zip on her hair bag open and pulled out four brushes. "Pick one," she told us, holding them out like playing cards.

Emmeline and I grabbed one each, and Dorcas used the other two to brush both sides of her hair at the same time.

With two minutes before our party was due to start, we had fixed our hair, but the food still wasn't out on the table.

Dorcas smiled, her hair perfectly styled once more, and went to take a plate of biscuits of the cart.

But it was stuck.

Dorcas swore under her breath. "What – Come on!" She put a foot on the cart and attempted to wrench the plate off.

"Uh, Dorcas?" said Emmeline calmly from behind her, as she tapped our friend on the shoulder.

"Yeah?" she said, still trying to pull the plate off with her own strength.

"Sticking Charm," said Emmeline, holding up Dorcas' wand.

"Oh." Dorcas let go of the plate and took her wand from Emmeline. "Right."

"Git," I said quietly.

"Know-it-all," retorted Dorcas, unsticking everything and handing it to Emmeline to put it on the table.

I shoved Dorcas playfully, so that she almost dropped the punch bowl when there was a knock at the door.

Dorcas did drop the punch bowl.

"Git!" I cried, repairing it instantly.

"Emmeline!" said Dorcas quickly. "What's the time? It's not seven o'clock yet, is it?"

"No." Emmeline stared at her watch. "There's still like a minute to go."

Nobody moved.

"Fine," I said at last. "I'll answer it." I headed over to the door and opened it a crack. "Who's there?"

"Hiya Evans!" cried a voice. A hazel eye was pressed to the crack. "Is the party still on?"

I grinned and opened the door. "Welcome."

James, Sirius and Remus walked into the classroom, looking around with awe.

"Wow," said Sirius. He went to stand to next to Dorcas. "This is amazing what you've done with that tinsel."

Dorcas attempted to look modest. "I try."

Remus had meanwhile taken an awkward shuffle towards Emmeline. "You have egg shell in your hair," he said quietly.

Emmeline's cheeks darkened. Remus reached up to pick it out.

"Good job, Lily," said a voice in my ear.

I turned to face James behind me. "Thanks."

"I didn't think you could do it," he said, looking up at the tinsel that we'd strung from the ceiling. "You proved me wrong. HEY MOONY!" he yelled across the room. "I OWE YOU TEN GALLEONS, RIGHT?"

"WHY?" Remus shouted back.

"YOU MADE THAT BET WITH ME!" yelled Sirius.

"OH RIGHT!" James faced me again. "Sorry. You know, I could have sworn I made that bet with Moony…"

I smiled. "Give them both ten Galleons," I advised.

"Why? Do I look like I have twenty Galleons?" James made a hand gesture to show his fancy new suit.

"Yeah, you do," I said, laughing.

There was a loud knock at the door.

Emmeline glanced at her watch. "It's show time!" she cried.

I felt shivers run through me. It was about to begin!

"Hello," said Dorcas, opening the door extravagantly as Emmeline extinguished the candles. "Welcome the biggest and best Christmas bash ever."

I saw the dim shadows of people walk in. Emmeline and Remus directed them to stand in the middle of the classroom.

"Have a great time everyone!" I cried, flicking my wand and setting off the flashing candles.

Everyone looked around the room first and 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed. Then the large windows on the opposite side of the room exploded.

Everyone shrieked and ducked. James tackled me to the ground.

"Ugh, get off," I giggled, shoving him off me. I sat up when the glass stopped shattering on the ground.

A group of three people stood on the stage that had suddenly appeared. They were dressed in jeans and mismatched Muggle clothes.

Dorcas leapt up onto the stage. "I present," she said loudly, "the Merlin Moochers!"

Our guests clapped nervously. I ran forward and grabbed Dorcas' arm as she jumped off the stage.

"What the hell?" I hissed. "Who are these people?"

"My cousins," she whispered back.

"What?"

"What?" cried Emmeline who had joined us. "Did you say your cousins?"

"Yes," replied Dorcas. "They're very good at Christmas songs and I promise to wipe their memories afterwards."

"A very merry Christmas to all!" yelled what appeared to be the lead singer into the microphone. "And a one, and a two, and a three…"

"_Silver bells, silver bells_," they sang sweetly. "_It's Christmas time, in the city_…"

The people had begun to mill around, get some food, and punch, and others were happy to dance to the sweet sounds of the Merlin Moochers.

"I don't even know this song," said a girl as her partner twirled her by. "But I love it!"

I smiled, happy that everyone was enjoying the party.

"Would you like to dance?" asked James beside me.

I looked up into his hopeful hazel eyes. "Not now," I said. Disappointment was written all over his face. "When they start singing 'Winter Wonderland', find me." I left him standing there, and went to find Emmeline and Dorcas.

Dorcas was by the punch bowls, chatting with Sirius. They looked very close, so I left them and went to find Emmeline.

I found her hiding behind a group of Hufflepuffs.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her, squeezing into the tight space with her. "I must have passed Remus three times looking for you."

"I know." Emmeline's face was set in a small frown. "He asked me to dance."

I grinned, for her sake. "That's great! Isn't it?"

"I don't know what to say," said Emmeline. "And since the pause I'd started had been going for so long, I just ran."

"Emmeline!" I said, shocked.

"What?"

"After all these years…" I said, shaking my head.

"All these years of what?"

"With your very few boyfriends, you were just making sure that he was right for you, weren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said firmly.

"Oh come on, Emmeline." I pulled her onto her feet. "Let's go."

"Go where?"

Sheesh, sometimes that girl is so oblivious.

I pulled her through the crowd and found Remus again, sitting by himself on the edge of the dance floor.

"Remus?" I said, Emmeline attempting to hide behind me. "Emmeline would like you to ask her that question again."

"No I don't," said Emmeline in a voice above a whisper.

"What quest – Oh, okay." Remus got to his feet and peered over my shoulder at Emmeline. "Emmeline, will you dance with me?"

The Merlin Moochers began to sing, "_Walking in a winter wonderland_…"

"Yes," answered Emmeline, still in her barely-there voice.

I smiled at Remus, and turned around to walk away.

"Dance, Lily?"

I nearly jumped right out my skin. "Merlin! You're a stalker, you know that right?"

James just grinned. His hazel eyes sparkled. He held out his hand to me. "Well? They're singing about some winter wonderland, right?"

"Right," I agreed, placing my hand in his and letting him swing me away.

We spun around the dance floor, and I felt like I was flying.

The song came to an end. James stopped twirling me when we were right next to a window.

"Look," I whispered. "It's snowing."

I looked up and found James looking straight into my eyes.

"I love you, Lily," he said quietly.

"Really?" I asked, hugging him closer.

"Yes," he answered. "Really."

And he leant in and kissed me.

When he pulled back, I had the best feeling in the world running through me.

"I love you too, James."

And that's when the tinsel fell down.

"TSUNAMI!"

**.x.x.x.**

Sunday 16th December 1977

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_Our party went on without a hitch! Everything went fine, considering everything we went through to get to that point. _

_Right now, I'm writing this in my dormitory, on my bed. Dorcas is next to me on her bed, lying down with a wet cloth over her eyes. Someone spiked the punch. I think it was Emmeline. She had a bit of Firewhiskey before the party had even started. She and Remus are going out now. They're so cute together. Sirius and Dorcas are going out now too. I don't go anywhere near them when they are together. Their pranks are practically deadly._

_And you'll never believe it, Mum, but you know that boy that I always said I hated because he followed me constantly and never stopped asking me out? James Potter? Does it ring a bell? Well, I have some very good news concerning him. And no, he didn't die. I can't even dream of thinking that about him now. You know why?_

_Because he and I are girlfriend and boyfriend. Isn't that great? I'm so happy._

_I hope you both have a merry Christmas. Wish Petunia merry Christmas for me. I probably won't be seeing you. I'm staying at Hogwarts for Christmas. But I'll be sending you presents! James is helping choose. What do you think I should get for him?_

_All my love,_

_Lily._

**.x.x.x.**

_**Disclaimer:**__** Harry Potter and anything related to him (i.e. James and Lily, his parents) are not my property. But I sure do wish they were.**_

**I hope that you all enjoyed my story. :D I certainly had a lot of fun writing it. **

**With many, many, many thanks to all my reviewers and my readers who have stayed with me this far. I love you all!!!**

**And also, many, many, many, many, many, many, many thanks to Acelinn. If it hadn't been for you, this chapter wouldn't have gone up. Thanks. For that, and being my pal. :D**

**Have a Happy New Year everyone!!**


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